LEARNING FROM OTHER UNION WORK

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LEARNING FROM OTHER UNION WORK

• In this presentation, we will
• Examine successes and barriers faced by other
  unions who have engaged in social mapping work
• Determine the necessary conditions for success
• Identify how other unions have used social
  mapping data

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Trade Union Congress (TUC)London, UK

• By far, the most successful model of social
  mapping in the public union sector
• Started Equality Audits in 2001 as a results of a
  recommendations from a Task Group
• Have since conducted three audits over six years
  2003 2005 2007

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TUC

• 2003 the first equality audit surveyed members
  on a wide range of equality issues. In this way,
  they were able to create a yardstick to measure
  their progress on all equality issues
• 2005 focused on equity issues related to
  collective bargaining
• 2007 examined union membership and internal
  structures

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TUC

• When examining union structures and
• membership, the TUC canvassed four areas
• Structures rules, membership and recruitment,
  lay and full-time officials and representation
• Unions as employers equal opportunity policies,
  reviews of pay and conditions, staff profiles
• Union services and training services and
  benefits to members, monitoring employment
  tribunal cases, equality training to staff and
  reps
• Campaigns successful initiatives related to
  equity

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TUC

• The TUC plans to continue equality audits every
  two years to monitor their progress.
• In 2009, they will conduct another review of
  collective agreements
• In 2011, they will conduct another benchmark
  audit similar to the first one in 2003

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Canadian Labour Congress (CLC)

• The CLC initiated an Anti-Racism Taskforce in the
  early 90s. The Taskforce developed a detailed
  report and recommendations for action
• One of their recommendations was to examine and
  challenge internal union structures and
  practices, union education, research,
  communication and organizing strategies
• The CLC then established the Anti-Racism and
  Human Rights department to advance this work and
  other recommendations from the Task Force

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CLC

• More recently, the CLC has led a project called
  Changing the Canvas
• This project examines the changing demographic
  trends, particularly those involving racialized
  immigrants and barriers they face in the labour
  movement

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CLC

• An action plan from the May 2008 CLC Tri-Annual
  Convention specifically directed the CLC to work
  with affiliates, federations, and labour councils
  to undertake gender and equity audits
• It also directed the CLC to integrate anti-racism
  and equity perspectives into all activities and
  campaigns
• Finally, the action plan directed the CLC to
  prioritize organizing women, young workers,
  aboriginal workers and workers of colour in their
  fight for secure jobs, decent wages and
  contracting in provisions in collective agreements

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Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE)

• 1996-1997 CUPE National made their first attempt
  at surveying the membership
• They used voluntary surveys and relied on the
  goodwill of the local leadership to complete the
  project
• The response rate was poor and could not be used
  for the purposes of strategic planning and
  programming

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CUPE

• About ten years later, CUPE is trying again
• This time, they will focus on only two regions
  BC and Ontario
• They also plan to rely on the local leadership in
  their Equity Committees such as the Pink
  Triangle, Aboriginal and Rainbow Committees to
  build local support and understanding of the
  project

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CUPE

• In addition to the large scale survey of the
  membership, CUPE has been gathering data on its
  members for the last eight years
• They have instituted voluntary reporting at
  Convention and any other CUPE conference/event
• They use the data for
• Tracking access issues in the union by monitoring
  the the identity of those participating and
  attending CUPE events
• Assessing the quality of services and programs
  for all members

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PSAC

• PSAC has been gathering social mapping data for
  many years using a variety of tools
• Self-identification surveys used at Convention,
  Educational Activities, Conferences. This
  information is placed in a database and members
  are informed that the data is confidential to the
  extent that it is used for equity programming.
  The only person who has access to the information
  is the Human Rights Officer.
• Regional Self-Identification each of the
  regions instituted a self-identification program.
  With this data, they were able to create regional
  email and communication networks
• Political mandate to report attendance there is
  regular and mandated reporting of who is
  attending events. So far, they only have a
  mandate to report on gender, but are working on
  broadening that mandate

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PSAC

• They plan to continue data gathering in three key
  ways
• Building the regional network into a national
  network
• Creating a more sophisticated database that will
  move away from capturing only static data (ie.
  how many young workers were at this event?) to a
  system that captures more dynamic data (ie. how
  many of young workers were at this event and what
  was their main issue?)
• Updating their union application cards to capture
  social mapping data

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PSAC

• Most recently, PSAC collected detailed membership
  data in preparation for bargaining
• They hired Environics, an external team of
  geodemographic professionals, who polled 5,000
  members
• The initial start-up cost was 150,000 for a
  six-month period.
• With the success of the work and the data they
  gained, they are now incorporating that data into
  other areas of work

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What can we learn?

• Other unions are already doing this work
• Greatest level of success
• comprehensive in scope at the outset
• long-term vision
• regular mechanisms to audit and monitor
  implementation are built in
• Lowest level of success
• Strictly voluntary work
• short-term approach
• failure to contemplate, at the outset, how the
  data can be used, maintained and applied