Services and strategic policies: ver.di's approach to reaching the selfemployed

1

• Services and strategic policies ver.di's
  approach to reaching the self-employed
•  

Gunter Haake ver.di-department self-employed Manag
er of ver.di's mediafon Ltd. Gunter.Haake_at_mediaf
on.net
freie.verdi.de www.mediafon.net
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ver.di and the youth

• dju students project
• presence in journalistic schools
• Youth media convention in cooperation with young
  journalists organisation
• Newsletter, brochures (how to start)
• Special structures and fees for young people
  inside the union
• no specific rise of membership over years

3
ver.di and the self-employed

• ver.di inherited self-employed from its
  predecessor IG Medien (media union)
• 9/2001 22,000 self-employed (0,79)
• 3/2008 30,000 self-employed (1.36) looking at
  current employed members the self-employed quota
  is 1.49
• ca. 13,000 freelancing journalists
• Special structures and tenders for self-employed
  inside ver.di

4
The idea behind organising s.-e.

• We organize everyone selling work
• This can't be limited to salaried work
• We recognize changes in the labour market
• self-employment figures will risesolo-entrepreneu
  rs of all e. 2004 D 51,7, GB 75,8 of
  whole workforce D 5,4, GB 9,3 see also
  IFJ report The Changing Nature of Work (2006)
• Blurring boundaries between work forms
• Self-employment is often but not always a
  synonym for bad work two classes of s.-e.
• involvement in politics and social dialogues
• network to provide information and service

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Acting in two dimensions

• political part analysis and lobbying in
  politics, public, trade unions and ver.di
• service sector advice to self-employed
• Clear task for both fields
• political inspired service
• target group inspired politics
• No interference with dju-competence like ethics
  of journalism or professional standards.

6
mediafon a service company

• mediafon is a ver.di-owned service Ltd.
  providing
• job related information and networking of, from
  and for all and self-employed (mostly used by
  media-, culture-, education- and IT-freelances)
• showing and using competence
• new forms of union-work (for new client-groups)
• cooperation with target-group-relevant
  initiatives and actors like social insurance etc.
• realizing income from not unionized customers

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mediafon's main business

• All kinds of job-related information (e.g.
  contracts, social security, authors rights,
  cooperations, self-marketing, health and
  safety...)
• Service supplied via
• call enter and freelance-consultants
• freelances who are job-experts, flexible in
  location and time
• publications
• website with news (ca. 3 million page views/year)
• monthly newsletter (gt 8.500 copies)
• self-employed handbook online and print

8
organizing by being present

• closely related to everyday life
• concentration on specific topics / clear profile
• trusted partner (e.g. against ver.di-structures)
• less members leave, new members are tied in
  because
• we get big confidence of customers and members
• trade union message comes across
• better performance and closer to the needs than
  solicitors etc.
• extensive and fast internal and external
  communication
• low conflict between aspiration and reality
• clear commitment and concentration on
  self-employed needs
• present in businesses without trade union
  structures