A Trade Union is an organisation made up of members which is made up of predominantly workers. Out of the many different roles a trade union has, one of its main ones is to protect and advance the interests of its members in the work place.
Now we know what a trade union is, its important to know what the actual purpose of one is, in depth.
Trade unions are mostly independent of any employers but try to develop close working relationships between its employers, this can take on the form of a partnership agreement of which the employer and the trade union identifies their common interests and objects.
Trade unions also:
- Negotiate agreements with other employers on pay and conditions
- Discuss big changes to the workplace, an example of this is a large scale redundancy
- Discuss the concerns of members with other employers within the union
- Appear as an accomplice for members in disciplinary and grievance meetings
- Provide members with legal and financial advice
- Provide education facilities and certain consumer benefits such as discounted insurance
Two trade unions in the print-based media industry -
Trade Union one – Graphical, Paper and Media Union
The GPMU first came to being on the 30th of September 1991 when the National Graphic Association and the society of Graphical and Allied Trades came together. Over a long period of time, 50 trade unions have come together to form the GPMU and the trade union doesn’t just account for the printing, packaging, publishing and papermaking industries anymore.
GPMU was based solely in the UK and Ireland and had 200,000 members before dissolving and merging into Amicus in 2005. Since then Amicus had over 1.2 million members before later merging into Unite.
Unite the union is now the largest trade union in the UK and Ireland and covers more than just the printing industry with different sectors inside of it. Unite now has over 1,420,000 members and merged with the United Steelworks to form a global union called Workers Uniting which now represents over 3 million members from the UK, Ireland, North America and the Caribbean.
The General Secretary of Unite is Len McCluskey who was born in July of 1950 on the 23rd. Before becoming the General Secretary of Unite we spent years working on the Liverpool Docks and was elected as the General Secretary of Unite in 2010 after the retirement of Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley. He also re-ran for the position in 2013 to which he won again with 144,570 votes to 79,819 of Jerry Hicks.
Trade Union two – National Union of Journalists
The NUJ is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it was founded in 1907 and since has over 38,000 members. The trade union itself represents members in numerous different sectors of journalistic content ranging from newspapers and agencies to magazines and broadcasting.
Within categories such as a broadcasting company and magazine developer and publisher all job roles are covered, for example the ones below:
Trade Union one – Graphical, Paper and Media Union
The GPMU first came to being on the 30th of September 1991 when the National Graphic Association and the society of Graphical and Allied Trades came together. Over a long period of time, 50 trade unions have come together to form the GPMU and the trade union doesn’t just account for the printing, packaging, publishing and papermaking industries anymore.
GPMU was based solely in the UK and Ireland and had 200,000 members before dissolving and merging into Amicus in 2005. Since then Amicus had over 1.2 million members before later merging into Unite.
Unite the union is now the largest trade union in the UK and Ireland and covers more than just the printing industry with different sectors inside of it. Unite now has over 1,420,000 members and merged with the United Steelworks to form a global union called Workers Uniting which now represents over 3 million members from the UK, Ireland, North America and the Caribbean.
The General Secretary of Unite is Len McCluskey who was born in July of 1950 on the 23rd. Before becoming the General Secretary of Unite we spent years working on the Liverpool Docks and was elected as the General Secretary of Unite in 2010 after the retirement of Derek Simpson and Tony Woodley. He also re-ran for the position in 2013 to which he won again with 144,570 votes to 79,819 of Jerry Hicks.
Trade Union two – National Union of Journalists
The NUJ is a trade union for journalists in the United Kingdom and Ireland, it was founded in 1907 and since has over 38,000 members. The trade union itself represents members in numerous different sectors of journalistic content ranging from newspapers and agencies to magazines and broadcasting.
Within categories such as a broadcasting company and magazine developer and publisher all job roles are covered, for example the ones below:
- Art Editor
- Editor
- Newspaper correspondent
- Columnist
…To name a few.
Since its founding in 1907 the union has had over eleven different General Secretaries spanning from its founding to 2011 where Michelle Stanistreet has been the General Secretary for 5 years now.
Michelle Stanistreet became the first woman deputy General Secretary when she was elected in 2008 and after Jeremy Dear stepping down, became the first woman General Secretary in April 2011. Prior to this, she worked as a journalist for ten years at the Sunday Express where she was a feature writer and books editor.
Since its founding in 1907 the union has had over eleven different General Secretaries spanning from its founding to 2011 where Michelle Stanistreet has been the General Secretary for 5 years now.
Michelle Stanistreet became the first woman deputy General Secretary when she was elected in 2008 and after Jeremy Dear stepping down, became the first woman General Secretary in April 2011. Prior to this, she worked as a journalist for ten years at the Sunday Express where she was a feature writer and books editor.
No comments:
Post a Comment