Equity Council 1
27 July 2010
Agenda Item 7
Organising for Success
In all trade unions in recent years debate has raged in relation to the best
approach to representing members.
The two main camps in this debate are the servicing approach and the
organising approach. In short the two approaches can be categorised as
follows:
Servicing
In the servicing approach members in exchange for their membership
subscription receive a series of services from the Union, insurance, legal
protection, collective agreements, small claim recovery, individual
representation etc.
Organising
In the organising approach members are individuals coming together under a
collective umbrella, putting money into a collective pool to resource the
activities the members need to ensure their wellbeing. This includes the
provision of services but also includes members being involved and
participating, not only in the democratic processes of the Union, but also in
the work of the Union. The Union is not the building, the staff, the photocopier
but rather the 36,500 members of Equity being organising to be united and
active.
The ‘Organising for the Future’ report from the Labour Research Department
shows that good organising is needed to tap the energy, intelligence and
collective power of members. I have also included the GMB ‘Organising Your
Workplace’ document, the Equity ‘Organising for Success’ document, the
Australian Services Union (ASU) ‘What We Believe in, How We Organise’
paper, pages 8, 9, 24 and 25 of the Australian Council of Trade Unions
(ACTU) ‘Principles for Organising’ booklet, with and the ‘We Are A Movement
not a Bureaucracy’ statement from former ACTU Secretary Bill Kelty, with this
report.
Equity
Like most Unions Equity has been involved in organising activity at many
points in its 80 year history. Equity has also been heavily involved in
servicing. In the debate it often becomes a choice as to whether an
organisation is a servicing union or an organising union. However Dr. Mary
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Bousted, General Secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers
(ATL), very wisely counselled at the Equity Staff Training Day on 30 June
2010 that it is better to avoid declaring an organisation as one or another.
The reality is Unions both organise and service and both approaches are
required in any Union tool kit.
However there is a question of the balance between the two approaches. If a
bird needs two wings to fly, both need to be strong.
Organising and servicing activities within Equity need to be developed by the
organisational thinking and by the Union being conscious of its thinking in
relation to how its organising and servicing wings are developed. In that
process the organisation’s mindset becomes important. What mentality does
the organisation have?
In the past I would contend that Equity was more influenced by a servicing
mentality than an organising mentality, and in my experience a servicing
mentality strengthens servicing within a Union but does not give enough
attention to organising, leaving that wing of the Union’s activity weaker. With
one strong wing and one weak wing the danger is that you fly round in circles.
On the other hand I content an organising mentality gives attention to both the
organising wing of the Union and the servicing wing and works on
strengthening both but leading with an organising approach.
An organising mentality does not mean Equity becomes an ‘organising Union’
but it does mean that Equity prefers the organising approach which values
both organising and servicing, each in its proper place.
Equity has in effect been reforming its activity towards an organising approach
in a number of ways including Council endorsing the campaigning approach
to negotiations and then the change in my position since 1 January 2010 to
‘Assistant General Secretary, Live Performance and Organising’. The Union
now needs to formalise this mindset and confirm the Union’s position into the
future is based on placing organising and servicing activity within Equity under
the umbrella of an organising mentality and the organising approach.
Having taken that step the exact detail of what Equity then needs to do on the
organising wing I suggest must be developed further in a number of ways.
National Organising Team
Equity will need to develop an Organising Strategy and I recommend that I
convene a staff National Organising Team which in the first instance
comprises of the AGS, LP&O, the four Heads of Department and a
National/Regional Organiser to undertake the work of developing the strategy,
and to begin to co-ordinate the other organising activity the Union is already
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undertaking.
Variety Organising Team
Council has already endorsed the establishment of a Variety Organising team
comprising of the AGS, LP&O, Variety Organiser, a National/Regional
Organiser, a Variety Councillor, a Variety Branch Secretary and a Variety
Advisory Committee elected member. The first meeting of the Team will be
on 28 July 2010 although individuals have been nominated to this meeting as
a one off from the lay member side subject to proper election processes
following the VAC election later in the year.
Workplaces
As you can see from the included material many Unions focus on activity in
the workplace as the key to the organising approach.
Equity currently undertakes frequent workplace visits, recruiting and retaining
members, electing Deputies, and dealing the many issues that arise amongst
our working members. Deputies, cast, stage management and creative team
are as involved as we can get them in the activities of the Union. However
this can be improved and deepened in a number of ways that the National
Organising Team will examine.
Unlike other Unions it is very difficult for Equity to build stable workplace
organisation because Equity members are often on short term contracts and
companies come and go many times during the course of a year in live
performance and are often brought together for a one off activity in recorded
media. There are some, but few, workplaces where members are engaged
for longer periods of time.
Live Performance and Recorded Media will need to develop their own
approaches. The organising approach can be equally applied, but in different
ways. In Recorded Media for example ensuring residuals, royalties and
copyright payments are established and honoured is a very big part of the
function of the Department’s work. Linking an organising approach that is
compatible with this work will be required. I have attached to this report
information from the American AFTRA union and the Canadian union ACTRA
that shows how they are approaching organising.
Branches and Committees
In addition to having the opportunity to being organised in the workplace the
other place Equity members come together within the Union structure is within
the Branches and Committees. I believe any advancement of the organising
approach within Equity must include a greater organising role for Branches
and Committees. Steps have already been taken to help the Branches and
Committees find a clearer understanding of their role by the introduction of the
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process by which aims and objectives are formulated and through a more
regular coming together of General Branch Secretaries and Chairs. Variety
Branch Secretaries already meet several times a year. On 15th and 16th July I
addressed Branch Secretaries and Committee Chairs meeting in London to
begin the process of discussion of ‘Organising for Success’.
Recruitment and Retention
Equity has an existing Recruitment and Retention Team which meets
monthly. The development of the organising approach will require R&R and
organising activity to be co-ordinated.
Training
Training is central to the organising approach and is seen as a key aspect of
trade unionism in the 21st century. It is something that the previous
Government supported through partnership with the TUC and a funding
stream (Union Learning Fund) only accessible by trade unions. What is
unclear is the level of support that will be available under the new coalition
Government.
The current Equity approach to training is three pronged and managed by
Louise Grainger our Marketing, Events and Training Manager:
1) Strategic involvement with the two Sector Sector Skills Councils that cover
our sector: Skillset (audiovisual) CCSkills (live performance). The General
Secretary currently sits on the boards of both these organisations, both to
represent Equity and the Federation of Entertainment Unions.
2) Training for Members as it relates to their profession is delivered by the
Training Officer in areas that are useful to their career development.
These include programmes of workshops at the Edinburgh Festival and at
other events such as the National Student Drama Festival, Move It! The
Dance Show, Actors Expo and specific Equity events such as the West
End Day for student members. This also includes the ongoing series of
workshops created in partnership with other FEU members, funded by the
Union Learning Fund and which include day workshops on practical topics
such as Copyright for Creatives, Building Your Own Website and others.
This project was recognised by Union Learn and received the 2010
Outstanding Achievement Award for Information, Advice and Guidance.
Similarly we are working with sister unions in Wales to deliver our CULT
Cymru project of continuing professional development workshops and we
have done similar work in Manchester and now in Newcastle with regional
TUC colleagues.
3) The third area, and the one we will focus on is Training for activists.
Equity’s 36,500 members are our best advert to our non-members and the
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wider industry. The key aspect of this programme of work is to engage
members in non-traditional ways and encourage them to become more
active within the union. The Union is already active in this area but need
to extend this work in the areas already covered, and into new activities
which will benefit the Union as a whole. Some of the current work in this
area is supported by UnionLearn, some by the Union Modernisation Fund
and some solely by Equity.
The activity in this area has, so far, concentrated on members who have
agreed to act as Deputies, Branch and Committee members, members
involved with equality issues and members who have indicated a desire to
be more involved in the Union by becoming Ambassadors. We have
developed Equity Deputies training in partnership with the TUC Organising
Academy. This is for members who are taking on the Deputy role for the
first time or who are interested in becoming a Deputy but want to know
more about what is involved in order to feel equipped to take on the role.
We have developed a day’s training for members new to committee work
in response to the increase in members standing for and being elected to
the specialist committees at the last round of elections. We then used
modules from this, in particular the ones on union structure and motions,
as part of the annual Branch Secretaries day last winter.
Equity Equality Representatives are again in the main members with
whom the union had no previous relationship and who were motivated by
a desire to help fellow members. The network is now in place and will
become active over the next few months. Both the Ambassador and
Equality training is fully recognised and accredited by the Open College
Network and participants receive qualification credits on completing the
training.
Equity Ambassador training was introduced in 2007 for members wanting
to be more involved in the union and become actively supportive in
workplaces. In the main they are members with whom the union had no
contact previously other than to collect their subscriptions. The network
now includes members across England and Scotland and the training will
be running in Wales and Northern Ireland this year. Ambassadors talk
about what the union is doing to their fellow members and non-members,
make sure there is Equity information available in a wide range of
workplaces and training institutions and many have used it as a stepping
stone to becoming more involved in Equity’s democratic structures. For
example Ambassadors have gone onto to be on Branch committees and
specialist committees, attend the ARC, and now some are standing for
Council. They have also brought ideas to the union most notably the highly
successful Limelight event and the current Chair of the Young Members’
Committee first got involved with Equity by doing the Ambassador training.
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These are all ongoing programmes but we need to continue to develop
them and expand them into new areas where our members are at the
vanguard on industrial and political campaigns. We need work with and
encourage members to engage them, equip them and encourage them to
take on active roles within the union so that they feel confident and proud
to get involved with campaigns, to talk about the union and promote
Equity, to identify issues in workplaces and find ways of dealing with them.
Therefore, training is a major component of the organising agenda.
The Training Officer is currently looking at developing new areas of
training for activists such as Branch Officials in particular in the area of
campaigning and communications. The thinking on this includes a mixture
of workshops and a new mentoring system which may fit particularly well
within the Branch structure so that vital knowledge, experience and skills
can be passed on. The Live performance department is building on the
existing deputy training to develop something for more experienced
Deputies to help them in taking issues forward, negotiating and so on
(copy enclosed). The Training Officer is working with out-of-London
Organisers on examining ways of delivering the Stage One Deputy training
to members outside of London, and considering ways of keeping these
new activists engaged and involved in their networks. This latter aspect
will probably be best delivered via social networking technology and forms
part of the discussions for the new website.
In addition to looking at our training portfolio, we will also be looking at a
programme of “training the trainer” so that Equity can deliver training
without having to bring in TUC tutors. It would be useful to have an initial
pool of Equity staff and then members who are properly able to deliver
training to existing and potential activists.
This would require a
commitment as regards staff time and the costs involved for both staff and
members and may require a partnership with a TUC recognised college.
There clearly needs to be proper and sustained investment to research,
development and deliver an expanded training programme. We believe
that our current training programme has been successful and this is very
much thanks to the dedicated work of Louise Grainger particularly in
getting external funding to support some of this work but these funding
streams may well be drying up given the change in Government and the
economic environment. If the Union is committed to creating the next
generation of activists and delivering the organising model throughout the
Union then the investment we must make in training will be vital.
Conclusion
Involving members more in Equity’s activities, providing training and coordination across the organisation to build the Union’s power in our
workplaces and industries to a greater extent than it exists today, is the
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goal of adopting an organising approach. Equity increasing the Union’s
strength by linking it more directly to levels of membership and direct
membership activity in support of the Union’s goals is the objective.
In line with the Trade Union Congress (TUC) Five Organising
Fundamentals members will be encouraged to work collectively and
campaign together receiving the support and advice of Deputies and paid
officials to assist them to win their issues.
A Union rooted in the membership, inclusive and creating opportunities for
empowerment, involvement and activism for all members in a growing
organisation. That’s where ‘Organising for Success’ is aiming to take us.
Stephen Spence
ASSISTANT GENERAL SECRETARY
Live Performance and Organising
Equity
July 2010
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