Union officers give even more time than before to organising

Full-time union officers are spending more time responding to the organising agenda than they were two years ago, even though it was already high at that time, according to a survey commissioned by TUC Education.

The survey, carried out by Doug Gowan of the Open Learning Partnership, found that the top two tasks identified by union officers were directly helping activists and branches to organise, and providing advice and support on organising.

However, pressure on officials to support members through individual casework is also continuing to grow. The survey says this is partly attributable to external factors including the “litigation culture”, legal changes and rapid communications available from workplaces.

The survey found that, while significant numbers of union professionals are approaching retirement, this is counterbalanced by the recruitment of increasing numbers of younger staff, particularly among those joining to be organisers and project workers.

And it suggests that there are probably more women among the ranks of full-time officers than two years ago: the proportion of women responding to the survey was 46%, compared to a figure of 27% responding to a similar survey in 2005.

There was also evidence that “union professionals are more willing to make intelligent use of technology”. But this has proved to be a double-edged sword as they are also under more pressure from technology as “members expect instant answers to emails”.