This is an article from ForeFront - PDF can be downloaded from the ForeFront [1] pages.

The search for new members and the activists of the future is a pre-occupation of many people in the union movement.  Unions 21 held a fringe meeting at the end of the National Union of Students (NUS) London Regional Conference to hear directly from some of the people that might make up tomorrow’s unions. 

NUS President Gemma Tumelty was joined by Paul Noon, General Secretary of Prospect and David Braniff-Herbert, Youth and Student Organiser for Unite.

Gemma Tumelty spoke about the need to bring unions onto campus - the NUS represents seven million students in the UK. More than 70 per cent of them have to work to pay for their studies, yet only 4 per cent of them have joined a union.  Students are currently an untapped resource for the union movement.  Student unions share many of the same values as trade unions – “it’s not just about rights at work” but also campaigning issues and a similar commitment to internationalism. 

David Braniff Herbert echoed Tumelty’s comments. Working on issues that strike a chord with students helped Unite to set up student societies on a number of campuses.  At Durham University the union organised a week of events on unions and the environment.  This introduced Unite to students and gave the union an opportunity to identify three potential activists to run the society and create regular events.  “It’s vital that the students feel they own their piece of the union,” said Braniff Herbert.  This approach is reaping benefits – with 400 new student members and a group of around thirty core activists on different campuses across the UK.

But the challenge is how to demonstrate the relevance of unions to their lives.  All too many students have very little knowledge of unions “where is it taught in history?” lamented Braniff Herbert.  Paul Noon pointed out that the STUC has had some success with its ‘Unions into Schools’ programme and called for more collective promotion of trade unions to young people and school children. 

Noon said the challenges of reaching out to new members and discovering new activists should not be under-estimated.  Unions have to look at themselves first – union pre-occupations with structures can sometimes be a barrier to new, young members.  Unions need to either improve the marketing of the product or the product itself.  “The TUC should be a showcase for unions, not an opportunity for union leaders to blather on,” he declared.

Paul Noon emphasised that it is not just vulnerable working students who need unions.  “Those in what would be considered reasonable jobs need them too, because the balance of power in the workplace is not equal” he said, referring to the need to organise graduates as they enter the workplace.

Concerted efforts have been made to reach out to such future members since the TUC and NUS signed a protocol on joint-working.  Many different projects are being run as part of the protocol with unions and students trying a variety of approaches.  These range from dedicated student project workers based in TUC regional offices to student support for local union campaigns. 

The union Community, which organises in betting shops received student support for its ‘safer betting shops’ campaign and this relationship led to the union taking on two student activists on a summer placement scheme with the union.  For some unions, such as teaching unions, it can be easier to identify their future members while they’re studying and NUT, NASUWT and ATL all have student membership packages or run on-campus student teacher societies.

The NUS has also set up its own Activist Academy – along similar lines to the TUC’s Organising Academy.  Could this be the source of future trade union activists?  Trade unions will be watching all these projects with interest.