Stage, Screen & Radio - October/November 2014 - 16

It's easy to join BECTU

Recruit Recruit Recruit

JESS HURD/REPORTDIGITAL.CO.UK

BECTU President Jane Perry gives you some advice on how to recruit your colleagues into
the union, and explains the personal benefits you can get from becoming a BECTU rep
The best way to secure
rights at work is to recruit
a colleague: it really is as
simple as that. The more
BECTU members any
workplace has the
greater power that
workforce has and the
better the terms and conditions
that workforce can secure. I know in this
multimedia day and age it may seem
counter-intuitive but recruitment by a
colleague is always the most effective means:
they know you and even if they don't like you
they can see that you're spending money on
membership so it must have value. All you
then have to do is point out what that value
is in their workplace and/or for their type of
work or circumstances.
Recruitment doesn't always have to be
serious either. I made it a normal part of my
working day - for example someone whom
I'd approached on several occasions came
to me with a work question grumbling that
I was probably going to try to recruitment
them again. "No." I pointed out that they had
a perfect right not to join but that I hoped
that they would as I was standing for election
to the NEC and if they join that day they'd get
a ballot and I needed their vote - "Oh for
God's sake OK I'll join just to shut you up!"
As long as such banter is kept light-hearted
it can be a useful recruitment tool.

Members should see BECTU as part of
their careers and with this in mind BECTU
holds events that can help members either
with advice around member-identified issues
or directly with the furtherance of their own
careers. Freelance fairs were started by the
writers, producer & directors branch where
members and non-members could come
Great organisation:
TUC General Secretary Frances O'Grady
supports the Ritzy campaign for the
London Living Wage

"I strongly
believe in
collective action"

and network, get advice etc. Move
On Up, started by BECTU's black
members committee along with
Janice Turner in her role as
diversity officer, held events
whereby hundreds of black,
I joined BECTU mostly because I wanted
Asian and ethnic minority
to be part of a trade union. I strongly believe
workers had a day of miniin collective action and see unions as the
interviews with top executives
in our industries to make
only bodies actually fighting for the
contacts and find work. Over
rights and needs of ordinary people in
the years some of those who
the UK today. I've also seen BECTU
have attended ended up either
help my friends who are
getting staff jobs or had their
members so that certainly
ideas commissioned.
I know I've sung the praises of
encouraged me.
becoming a BECTU rep on many
Patrick Campbell
occasions but sometimes members
16

misunderstand my reasons. Trade unions
always need new reps - that's not the reason
I keep beating the 'become a BECTU rep'
drum: rather it is because the biggest
personal development you'll get outside
the job you do in our industries you can get
through being a BECTU rep. By being an
activist you'll get so used to standing up for

Becoming a rep is
the biggest personal
development you'll
get outside your job
what you believe that you'll find it very
difficult not to! As a rep there is choice over
what you do - besides branch secretary and
chair branches can divide out the work so
that some reps specialise in, say, equality
issues and/or personal cases. In others the
branch work is shared out by area or job.
Try the training and you can opt to specialise
later. I've always found personal cases very
rewarding - they are your own negotiation
Stage Screen & Radio October/November 2014
Stage, Screen & Radio - October/November 2014

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