Recruitment successes

The IPMS professionals' and specialists' union started the year well with 1,495 new recruits in the first quarter, up from the 1,416 who joined the union in the last three months of 1999. The ipms bulletin reports that membership is now 74,261, nearly 1,000 more than at the beginning of 1999.

The Public and Commercial Services (PCS) union has also seen a boost to membership at the Inland Revenue site at Longbenton near Newcastle-upon-Tyne. The PCS branch there was already 2,800 strong but now tops 3,000 following a two-week recruitment initiative which included a PCS stand in a central location and a trolley with PCS material which was wheeled around the site.