T&G campaign proves a success

More than 200 workplace campaigns are now running across the UK as part of the T&G general union's "100% membership campaign", and a new monitoring system has been developed to assess their impact.

The 100% campaign is the first phase in the union's "radical strategy" to refocus its resources on recruitment and organising, and aims to sign up employees in workplaces already organised by the union.

The new monitoring system will automatically update the position at each site when new people join the union or existing members leave the workplace. It will also provide up-to-date information on the number of trained shop stewards as well as the training they have received.

The union's journal, T&G Record, is highlighting successful campaigns, including the recent recruitment of 300 out of 400 Portuguese migrant workers at a poultry plant in Northern Ireland.

The Moy Park poultry plant is at Portadown and Dungannon, where low unemployment led the firm to use agency labour in peak times. "Migrant workers were brought in and exploited by the agency, working up to 15 hours a day, which undermined the union agreements," said senior plant steward John McLaughlin.

The union started recruiting them and ran a clinic for a couple of hours a week to explain their basic employment rights. This snowballed and the campaign received funding, paying for more clinics and successful recruitment.