General Council Report 2002: Chapter 13

General Council Report

• campaigns and communications
• 13.1 Introduction
• 13.2 Parliamentary and political campaigning
• 13.3 Campaigning through the media
• 13.4 Campaigning in print
• 13.5 Campaigning on the web
• 13.6 Campaigning through our call centre
• 13.7 Campaigning through research
• 13.8 Exhibitions
• 13.9 TUC events
• 13.10 TUC/Bank of Scotland Press and PR Awards - 25th Anniversary

campaigns and communications

13.1 Introduction

The General Council, in the year under review, have been active on a wide range of campaigns, and have also sought to develop and extend TUC initiatives to ensure better communications both within the trade union movement and with those we seek to influence across society.

Modern campaigning takes many forms. Sometimes all that is required is a well-made argument to government decision makers. Sometimes we can advance by using TUC representatives in public bodies. Sometimes a more orchestrated, but still relatively low profile, lobbying campaign in Whitehall and at Westminster is effective. On other issues the key to change is working with a wide coalition of other organisations such as pressure groups, charities or employers. Some issues are best advanced through a high profile campaign using the media to demonstrate public concern and support for our positions. And there are some issues where the General Council are fully aware that we are in for the long haul, and that we are preparing the ground for eventual change.

It is also a mistake to think that all TUC campaigning is directed at government. Many issues that we have taken up have been aimed at getting employers to take workplace issues seriously whether it be through effective policies to tackle institutional racism or by fully exploiting the potential of partnership.

The emphasis on effective campaigning therefore runs through all the General Council’s work described in this Report. Much of this has been aided by support from the TUC’s Campaigns and Communications Department. This chapter concentrates on the other work of the department on behalf of the General Council and provides an overview of media relations, parliamentary relations, exhibitions and events, publications and other activities carried out on behalf of the General Council.

13.2 Parliamentary and political campaigning

Parliamentary work continues to complement other policy and campaigning work within the TUC and this year has seen a number of high profile campaigns on legislative measures introduced by the Government and backbenchers as well as opportunities to lobby Parliamentarians about workplace issues.

The TUC maintained its reputation for authoritative briefing and continues to work with politicians from all parties on current priorities and objectives. The general secretary met the official opposition (at their request) to discuss pensions policy as well as meeting the leaders of the Liberal Democrats and the Scottish and Welsh Nationalists to discuss a range of UK-wide matters. Political contact included a presence at all the major party conferences as well as the Labour Party’s Spring Conference in Cardiff. The autumn conference season was scaled back as parties curtailed proceedings in response to the World Trade Centre atrocities. Where fringe meetings went ahead, there were good attendance figures. There are regular TUC contributions to the specialist magazines and websites that circulate at Westminster, and the other parliamentary and assembly bodies that make up our devolved democracy.

The general secretary and other senior TUC officials continued a comprehensive programme of political contacts, in particular more intensive systematic work with government departments which most directly impact on the TUC. Following the Government’s post-election emphasis on public service investment and reform, efforts were made to build better contacts with Ministers in the big spending departments such as Education, Health, Transport and Work and Pensions as well as the progress-chasing Ministers in the Cabinet Office and elsewhere.

More formal and regular contact with the TUC’s ‘lead’ department, the DTI, has been established at all levels and further progress on this is anticipated. Relations with the Treasury have been deepened and strengthened. Stronger links with the Foreign Office have also been forged and a reception was held to mark the change of leadership within the ICFTU, which was well attended by General Council members and Ministers. It is anticipated that these relations will deepen over coming months, (see above chapter seven).

TUC delegations met with the Prime Minister at regular intervals over the year to discuss a range of issues. A highlight of the year was a reception to celebrate the first year’s work of the TUC’s Partnership Institute hosted by the Prime Minister and Mrs Blair in the garden of No10 Downing Street.

Following the reshuffle in June, a contact programme with new Ministers was established and further meetings are planned for the autumn. The TUC’s summer event for Parliamentarians provided another opportunity for General Council Members and senior trade unionists to engage in discussion with politicians in both Houses and from all Parties.

The Parliamentary Labour Party Trade Union Group has continued to work closely with the TUC particularly during the passage of the Employment Bill when regular briefing meetings were set up. The General Council are grateful for the support provided by the Chair of the group and others in tabling amendments, pressing points in debate and in seeking private meetings with ministers. The group’s close involvement with the Bill helped improve several clauses.

Other issues pursued by the group include the Agency Workers Directive, manufacturing, information and consultation rights and discrimination law. Backbench debates in Westminster Hall highlighting specific trade union concerns were also instigated by members of the group. Following the group’s AGM in July, there have been some changes among the officers of the group. The General Council look forward to working with officers both old and new over the next parliamentary session.

Parliamentary briefings were widely distributed on economic issues such as the pre-budget report, regional policy, manufacturing, the Budget and the Comprehensive Spending Review. Other subjects for briefings included the Enterprise Bill, the Nationality, Immigration and Asylum Bill, the Education Bill, and the Tax Credits Bill. A detailed briefing was also supplied for set-piece debates on health and safety, learning and skills, the WTO conference and globalisation. Several backbench MPs sought and received TUC support for Private Members’ Bills including those on employee share ownership and mutuality.

Other campaigns by backbench MPs on redundancies by companies in receivership and unmarried partners pension rights received TUC support. TUC materials from the Know Your Rights line were regularly circulated to all MPs for their use in constituency work.

One of the most visible TUC Parliamentary campaigns in the 2001/2002 session was on public services. In December, the General Council organised a rally and lobby of parliament on the theme ‘Public Works’. The rally, in Central Hall Westminster, was addressed by front-line public servants and users of public services. Charles Clarke, the Minister without Portfolio, responded for the Government. Many of those attending the rally also lobbied their MPs. An Early Day Motion calling for a renaissance of the public sector ethos attracted 132 signatories.

Seminars and bilateral meetings took place throughout the year with TUC policy experts. AlI Party Groups met with TUC staff to discuss aspects of health and safety and domestic violence. MPs from all parties sought meetings on issues as diverse as pensions, manufacturing, teacher workload and agency workers. Select Committees in both Houses asked for written and oral evidence on a range of matters including productivity, public services, the future of Europe, sustainable development and European Labour Market policy. A significant performance before the Education and Skills Select Committee on Individual Learning Accounts established the TUC as an authoritative intermediary in a difficult and complex enquiry.

Relations with members of the House of Lords were strengthened and deepened with a significant number of peers with TUC and trade union backgrounds speaking out on workplace issues. There was considerable scrutiny and effort to improve the Employment Bill for which the General Council are grateful.

13.3 Campaigning through the media

The TUC has featured prominently in many sections of the media throughout the past year. Ahead of the 2001 Congress, where concerns over public service reform was prominent, the Promoting Trade Unionism Task Group’s report Reaching the Missing Millions was also extensively covered. On the eve of Congress, employers were challenged to ‘raise their game’ and embrace change rather than whinge about red-tape. On the opening day, pressure on employers was maintained with an attack on the ‘compensation culture myth’.

Just as public services were set to take centre stage, with the keynote speech from the Prime Minster, the tragic events of September 11th unfolded and Congress was suspended. The TUC’s media operation changed tack and arranged a pool interview with Joe Greene, President of the AFL-CIO, who had addressed Congress on the opening day. A distressing and emotional time for all was expressed most pertinently by Joe Greene as he described janitors, cleaners and caretakers as America’s auxiliary emergency service and spoke of his distress at being unable get through with any phone calls home.

The plight of manufacturing was kept in the public eye throughout the year. In his New Year’s message, the general secretary highlighted the 150,000 manufacturing job losses of the previous year. The TUC’s Budget submission focused on ‘smart support’ for industry and helped win fiscal incentives for training and an R&D tax credit. Ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review, a campaign for extra funding for Regional Development Agencies was mounted with extensive, and often highly supportive, media coverage particularly in regional media.

Pensions hit the headlines early in the year as a raft of final salary pension schemes were axed as companies peddled bogus excuses for their reduction in contributions. Several reports and a conference with the new Secretary of State helped the TUC set the agenda with it’s ‘pay up for pensions’ campaign for compulsory employer contributions.

Holidays and working time were also high on the agenda. Ahead of each bank holiday, the TUC ran stories highlighting the plight of those missing out, illustrated the lack of protection and the lesser number of holidays received by UK workers compared with their continental counterparts. With fewer holidays and longer hours than any other European country, the TUC’s About Time conference secured a commitment from the Secretary of State that Britain’s long hours culture would be tackled.

Another long standing campaign was pushed to centre stage as the TUC joined forces with the Centre for Corporate Accountability to hold the Government to its manifesto commitment for a law on corporate killing. Journalists and broadcasters heard at first hand from families of those killed in the Ladbroke Grove rail crash and in industrial accidents at an event in March.

Executive excess was another recurrent theme. The TUC highlighted the ‘fat cat pay gap’, with basic pay rises for directors outstripping those for their average employees by a factor of 3:1.

Other equalities issue were also high on the agenda, with the TUC showing black and Asian male workers earn on average £97 per week less than their white counterparts. The report Black and Underpaid was launched on the eve of the Black Workers’ Conference.

13.4 Campaigning in print

The General Council’s publishing programme continues apace, with a range of flagship reports, books and guides. Part of the publishing operation has also expanded into online text and pdf documents available from the TUC website (www.tuc.org.uk) A number of free e-bulletins are also sent regularly to subscribers.

New priced publications include:

· How to win an RSI compensation case

· Rubber banned? The case against latex

· Banking on your holiday?

· Report of Congress 2001

· What workers want from workplace organisations

· Employment and ex-offenders

· Social security and the changing labour market

· Employment and poverty

· Trade unions and disability

· Directory 2002

· Drunk or disordered

· Migrant workers - a TUC guide

· About time: a new agenda for shaping working hours

· TUC budget submission 2002

· Prospects for pensions

· Half the world away - making regional development work

The General Council also published the very successful campaigning leaflet Modern rights for modern workplaces which was circulated widely at union conferences; and Winning lesbian and gay equality.

Other campaigning items have included Racism at work, a leaflet for distribution by trades union councils; publicity materials for the equal pay reps seminars and education programme; and leaflets and billboard/bus shelter advertising for the UnionCity campaign in Leicester.

Three more rights leaflets have also been produced: Facing redundancy; Your rights at work - a guide for students; and an updated version of Take a break! - your working time rights.

On the learning front, TUC Education have produced a workbook on asthma; and a ringbinder handbook for new equal pay reps. Learning Services now have a training handbook for tutors teaching learning reps. A quarterly magazine The learning rep is a new and highly regarded vehicle for news stories about learning reps and their successes.

Policy departments and the Campaigns and Communications Department have also continued to produce consultation documents, briefings, submissions and media reports, including items for the Trade Union Trends series. These are often printed by the TUC’s in-house digital print facilities, which now offer colour printing. Unions are welcome to take advantage of these at specially discounted prices. Our CopyDesk will provide more details: 020 7467 1247.

The full TUC publications catalogue is available on request and customers can also purchase online from (www.tuc.org.uk/publications) Sales of TUC publications have increased this year through both on-line and directly mailed promotions and the TUC has continued its relationship with its mailing house. The mailing house now receives orders, stores publications, holds databases and despatches to purchasers.

The TUC’s publishing arrangement with Kogan Page is now in its third year. Three workplace advice books have been jointly published and all have proved to be popular. The first such publication Your rights at work, which sold around 20,000 copies, will be published in a second edition when the details of the new Employment Act are finalised. The second book Keeping well at work sold out in a year. And the third book Planning your pension was launched in July and is selling fast. Many sales of these publications were through bulk orders to union head offices, local and workplace union organisations. The books are also promoted to employers and voluntary organisations. Kogan Page distributed to the book trade and the TUC sold through mail order. The TUC now has a customer database of some 10,000, which has been built during the past three years.

The TUC Directory is now in its third edition since its relaunch in 2000, and following small promotions each year has increased sales by around 1,000. New customers include libraries and voluntary organisations. A special effort to promote sales of a new TUC guide Migrant workers also resulted in a wider circulation than normally expected. The guide was published jointly with the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants and marketed among scores of immigrant and refugee advice and campaigning organisations.

Sales of Hazards at work have continued to grow and new promotional materials have been distributed to audiences outside of the trade union movement.

13.5 Campaigning on the web

The TUC web site has been in its current form since 2001. Since then, usage of the site has grown. The site now achieves over 100,000 visits a month, and over 8,000 users are registered to receive email. Over 40 TUC staff members have been trained to add their own documents to the website, using the custom-built publishing tool.

Risks, the health and safety email newsletter, has been particularly successful, with over 4,500 subscribers. It is helping to provide a model for other email communications where TUC departments wish to collate and communicate specialist information. In ToUCh is a monthly email digest of TUC news and events. Microsites have also been set up to support the TUC’s work on globalisation and the Changing Times work-life balance campaign.

While the broad functionality and structure of the TUC web site continues to serve the General Council well, a number of incremental improvements to enhance performance have been put in place for the 2002 Congress, based on experience of using and managing the system for more than a year. More major developments to the email newsletter system and the site navigation will be researched and undertaken towards the end of the calendar year.

The General Council’s new website workSMART, a result of the recommendations of the Promoting Trade Unionism Task Group’s report to the 2001 Congress has also been developed within the Campaigns and Communications Department. This is more fully reported in chapter ten.

A separate website (www.learningservices.org.uk) has been launched to promote TUC learning services, and is fully reported in chapter eight.

A web team has been established within Congress House to ensure good co-ordination between departments and staff involved in promoting the General Council’s work on the web.

13.6 Campaigning through our call centre

The TUC’s know your rights telephone line continued to run this year. Callers are offered free leaflets on a wide range of workplace rights issues. Some 14,000 callers rang the line in the year to April 2002. The TUC now provides 20 different advice leaflets for those who ring the line on issues ranging from the Working Time Directive and rights for working parents, to tackling violence and racism at work. Just over half the callers were not union members and the line continued to offer the opportunity to join a union. In the first two years of this ‘join a union service’ around 1,500 people have been put in touch with affiliated unions.

13.7 Campaigning through research

The General Council have continued the research series into the work of trade unions. The reports released over the year focused on recognition, services for injury victims and today’s trade unionists.

Key finding’s from the reports have shown:

· There were more than 470 new recognition agreements last year, almost three times the numbers covered in the 2000 report, and an all time high for Trade Union Trends.

· As a result over 120,000 more workers are now covered by a recognised trade union.

· De-recognition has become a thing of the past with no reported cases where workers no longer have access to a recognised union.

· Cases of work-related stress have seen a 12 fold increase. 6,428 new cases were reported this year, compared with just 516 last year. 15 unions, including the largest, report that stress claims represent the largest increase in cases.

· Sadly, unions are now reporting that there is a significant increase in cases involving asbestos-related fatalities, when unions are acting for relatives of workers who have already died from mesothelioma.

· Awards won by unions for their members are up again to £321,241,265.

· Job losses in the manufacturing sector have helped put a brake on union membership growth - there are 44,000 fewer union members in manufacturing compared with a year ago. And while there has been growth in sectors such as business services, public administration and retail, this has not been enough to outweigh the decline in manufacturing, finance (where the decline of retail banking continues to hit union membership) and mining.

13.8 Exhibitions

A total of 97 exhibition stands were sold for the 2001 TUC Congress Exhibition.

Regular small exhibitions were also staged at the TUC Women’s Conference and TUC Black Workers’ Conference and various smaller exhibitions were held at other conferences throughout the year.

In 2001 the TUC took exhibition space at the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats. The stand was well received at these conferences.

In July it was reported to the General Council that a meeting had been held with Nestlé following suggestions from some members of the Women’s Committee that new information had come to light that called into question whether Nestlé met the criterion for inclusion in the Congress exhibition. The outcome of the lengthy meeting will be reported to the Women’s Committee when they next meet, after Congress, and the dialogue with the company will be maintained. In the meantime the General Council believe that there is no reason at present to change their policy concerning Nestlé’s participation in the Congress exhibition.

13.9 TUC events

Twelve national events have been organised by the TUC during the year - ranging from the Disability, Women’s, Black Workers’, Trades Union Councils’, and Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Conferences, Partnership Institute and Winning Lesbian and Gay Equality Receptions, Pre-Budget and Discrimination Law Conferences and Organise 2001. There was also Public Works - public services day in December 2001. Work for these ranged in scale from providing graphics, backdrops and presentations for conferences through to the organisation of Congress itself.

Additionally, materials, support and advice were provided for the TUC delegations to the ETUC demonstrations called to coincide with the European Council of Ministers meetings in Brussels and Barcelona.

Advice and assistance was also provided to a number of affiliates.

Meetings of the TUC and political party conference organisers included discussions with conference facility developers and service providers, and a fuller programme is planned for 2003. Additionally, discussions have continued with both Blackpool and Brighton local authorities, venues and hotel and other accommodation bodies on developments to existing and new conference facilities; with both towns remaining committed to involving the TUC and member unions in further discussions.

This process is continuing to broaden with Liverpool beginning to plan new conference facilities in addition to Manchester and London; and contact is being maintained through representative bodies for most of the other resorts and venues in the country.

13.10 TUC/Bank of Scotland Press and PR Awards - 25th Anniversary

In this 25th anniversary year of the Press and PR awards 28 unions entered the competition submitting a total of 107 entries. For the second year the awards were sponsored by the Bank of Scotland. The Bank has kindly agreed to continue their sponsorship for the next three years, until 2005.

This year’s five judges, were Chris Adams Employment Editor Financial Times; Jon Cruddas MP; Joy Johnson, Head of Media, Greater London Assembly; Philippa Kennedy, Editor Press Gazette; Andrew Linington, Editor NUMAST Telegraph.

The judges were impressed by the quality of the material submitted by unions. The winning and commended entries came from a range of big, small and medium sized unions, which reflected well on unions with limited resources. The judges noted that: 'In each of the seven categories unions were tackling issues in a highly focused way. They were imaginatively dealing with contentious issues involving the public sector, complicated disputes, and problems facing individual members.'

The well-attended awards ceremony in July, which included an exhibition of entries, provided opportunities for those in union communications departments to network and share best practice. Two publications were produced Focus on the Winners and the more detailed Judges’ Comments. A copy of Focus on the Winners will be available for each delegate at Congress. The results were as follows.

Best publication

Winner: GMB Action

Highly commended: UNISON u magazine

Commended: NUT The Teacher

Best Feature

Winner: RMT I endured nearly two years of hell

Highly commended: GMB Privates on parade

Commended: Prospect (EMA sector) Defending members

Best photograph

Winner: NUT - Jez Coulson

Highly commended: BECTU - Mike Powell

Commended: GPMU - Janina Struk

Best Illustration

Winner: GPMU - Clifford Harper

Highly commended: ASLEF - Jim Blair

Commended: PCS - Nigel Goldsmith

Best use of electronic communications

Winner: UNISON unison.co.uk

Highly commended: USDAW usdaw.org.uk

Commended: ATL askatl.org.uk

Best recruitment material

Winner: TSSA Just the ticket

Highly commended: UNIFI recruitment pack

Commended: GMB wreckers

Best Campaign

Winner: FBU Merseyside Dispute

Highly commended: GMB Keep public services public