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New ideas to reach young professionals
Published: 27 March 2008
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Professional and managerial staff unions around the world are being urged to reinvent themselves to attract young, new members and give them a say in what they do at work. The opening session of UNI’s Professional and Managerial Staff conference in Melbourne, Australia was told of initiatives in many countries to reach out to younger professionals - who are very often outside the scope of collective bargaining and who don’t automatically identify themselves with trade unions. In Australia APESMA’s John Vines reported on the launch in July of a Certified Practicing Professionals initiative and an on-line ‘Professionals at work’ option which allows professionals to buy specific union services through the web. APESMA already has MBA awarding status, runs its own business school, owns a search and selection work agency, provides career development and mentoring and helps people become self employed professionals. At the same time the union provides collective bargaining support for the 50% of the members who are covered by agreements. “We are two unions in one,” said John, who is also the UNI P&MS world president. “Our roles are to improve salaries and conditions and to strengthen the professional identity of our members at work. Unless you try new ideas, you won’t know whether they can work. If you don’t try new ideas you will wither away,” he warned delegates. Surveys to find out what members want have been a key part in building professional membership in Unionen, Sweden - formed at the beginning of this year by a merger of SIF and HTF. “We are getting better at asking what professional workers want,” said Christer Forslund. More education was one feedback and Unionen provides career guidance and coaching as well as salary information. “We have to find new solutions to attract new members as well as supporting our existing members,” said Christer. The union has 3000 self-employed members. In Scandinavia the engineers oganisations of Sweden, Norway and Denmark (unions and professional associations combined) have just set up an Association of Nordic Engineers to handle their merged international activities in a region where up to 80% of engineers are union members and - in Norway and Sweden - a similar proportion are covered by collective agreements. “Classic trade union values like solidarity are not enough, we need better services and stronger professional identity,” said Per Klok, who is the Secretary of the new Association. Networking and growing professional visibility in the media are two current trends. “Organising is a continuing priority for UNI P&MS. We are reinventing the trade union agenda,” said UNI’s Gerhard Rohde. In the United States only 7% of the private sector workforce are currently unionised and Professor Richard Hurd, of Cornell University, urged professional unions to learn some of the lessons of the growth of professional associations in his country. Segmenting membership, building education and certification roles and improved communication are among some of the pointers to emerge in a professional class in the USA that – at the moment - prefers a professional association to a union by two to one. “Professional workers do want a say in what they do at work,” said the Professor. “Why shouldn’t unions provide better labour market services than the professional associations? I believe that dialogue and alliances will benefit professional workers and potentially pave the way for union growth.” Several delegates from France warned that, while they agreed on the need to step up recruiting, unions shoud remain social organizations very distinct from professional organisations. In the UK football referees - under growing professional pressure in a multi-million pound show biz industry - have joined affiliate Prospect, reported the union’s general secretary Paul Noon. In Spain union attempts to reduce union strength among bank managerial staff prompted them to merge into a wider professional organization, reported Francisco Garcia of Comfia-CC.OO. Karthik Shekhar told how his union embraced both union and professional association in its name – UNITESprofessional that reaches out of workers in the call centre and IT-enabled services sector in India. |
