After taking the post on in a temporary unpaid capacity back in Sept 05, I've been covering all the duties except the line management of the team - organising the workload, sorting out IT issues etc etc.
When the post was finally advertised a couple of months back I got an interview but they couldn't separate the two internal candidates (only 4 points between us out of a possible 150 I was told). So we were given a project to do that involved some joint working on drafting a job description and then coming up with your own proposals for a restructuring and producing a couple of managerial risk assessments for not doing anything and for implementing your proposal.
The second interview was last Friday morning. I was the second one in having lost the toss. Finished the interview at about 12.45 having been in there since about 11.15 and was called back just after 1 to told I was being offered the job. The had to go to lunch with the interview panel and the unsuccessful candidate. He was obviously not happy with the outcome but had the good grace to congratulate me and chat over the meal.
After such good news, what could possibly be the bad news you might wonder?
After 20 years, I've stood down as a union activist. I couldn't continue in my many union roles and be a full time team manager. So I have told the branch that I am no longer a steward, convenor, or Communications Officer, and have told the regional office that they I am no longer Chair of the Finance Committee, a member of the Regional Committee, Regional Council delegate, or Chair of the Notts County Forum.
I'm carrying on briefly to produce my last edition of the Branch Newsletter and to keep the website up to date while someone else is nominated/elected/"volunteered". I'll be writing a "how to guide" for both the newsletter, the website and the branch blog to hand over to the next lucky person who will spending their weekends hunched over a keyboard trying to fit 3 articles into space for 2 when a 4th article would mean you could have an extra page that meant no need to squeeze/edit.
I've been at this union steward business a long time. I got roped in back in Stevenage - "Bob, can you just hand out leaflets in your work place?" back in 1987. Within 2 years I was vice chair of the NALGO branch and a delegate to the Eastern Regional Council. After the move to Nottingham in 1989, I became the local steward for my workplace and have worked my way up through numerous restructurings and elections to become a departmental convenor and Branch Officer as well as taking in various roles in the East Midlands region.
I survived the merger conferences as NALGO, NUPE and CoHSE became UNISON - being delegation leader for the first two years after merger was stressful - herding cats would have been easier than trying to get 8 ex branch secretaries to recognise that they were now all in one branch and couldn't vote how they felt but had to follow the mandate of the members' meetings we'd held back in the branch a few weeks before. My unofficial policy from the merger came to fruition - the "old generation" retired and us "youngsters" outlasted them to become the leadership of the union and we now have new activists who only know UNISON. After 20 years, it can be argued that I'm now one of those who needs to step aside so the next generation can get on with it. So I've done it. I wish them well.
My advice to the next generation?
- Don't make "no" your automatic response, ask "why?" instead.
- Be honest.
- Recognise when you don't know the answer and say so. Don't make it up but go find out and then get back to the person who asked the question.
- If the member is guilty as charged they need to be told that it's about mitigation, plea bargaining, or jumping before they're pushed
- Negotiating on the basis of a "half truth" can undermine your position now and for all future negotiations
- Some people will never be happy with what you do but they'll not be willing to come up with a suggestion of what they would do instead. Ask them if they want to become a steward as they feel so strongly about the issue - they'll either shut up or stand up
- Make links with others so you can learn from each other
- Think! Union negotiations are more like chess that poker - it's not about the cards in front of you but the next three moves after this one (badly mixed metaphor but I hope you know what I mean)
- It's not easy but the satisfaction of knowing that you are doing the right thing for the majority of people for the majority of the time will help you sleep at night.
