Neil Pearce: How the unions continue to misunderstand their members (who include Tories like me)

Neil Pearce is Chairman of East Ham Conservative Association and an active trade unionist in the GMB.

In the last two weeks I have dealt with many employment cases as an active trade unionist. One was a dismissal hearing in front of a panel of councillors. Another was a probation review of a new worker. There was an investigation into an employee who had been underpaid by £7,000; a job assimilation which had been reneged upon; a tribunal prep for a discrimination matter and a complaint about the quality of advice from some shop stewards.

This is my voluntary pursuit, working for trade union members needing support, advice and reassurance on a daily basis.

So that is why last month I was bothered by the allegedly moderate TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, speaking in our name about walk outs, strikes and manning the barricades to take on "ConDem cuts". This is despite the fact the unions still have deficiencies in member training and the quality of advice they give to employees in genuine workplace grievances.

I am under no illusion that my view of apolitical modern trade unionism is not one shared by the majority of paid union representatives, but it is one shared by a significant tranche of members. It was telling last week at work when a poster on the Unite board declaring "Tory Cuts – RIP" and depicting David Cameron as a monster dripping with blood dancing on public services was defaced with the comment "Cameron: Getting us out of the brown stuff AGAIN". Union leaders continue to misjudge the mood of their members.

Neil Pearce is Chairman of East Ham Conservative Association and an active trade unionist in the GMB.

Neil Pearce: Why I, as a Conservative trade unionist, believe the unions should cut their links with Labour

Neil Pearce is Chairman of East Ham Conservative Association and an active trade unionist in the GMB.

The News of the World, last Sunday, included a short article stating that an ICM poll of some 4,000 trade union members showed that some 71% wanted a split from the Labour Party and were sick of their leaders pumping money into the party.

It is a view shared by many members, yet it is something our trade union leaders fail to address. When it was revealed last year that I was a Conservative Party candidate for a council by-election and that I was also an active shop steward in the GMB trade union, there was a failed attempt to get me removed as a steward, simply because of my politics. Labour’s failure strengthened my argument that members do not get involved in the union because of party politics.

Most members join unions today because they believe the union acts as a protective and advisory service, believing in the merits of collective organisation in the workplace. Members are angry that whilst there are still pretty grim terms of employment in some places, examples of poor representation by stewards, inadequate worker training in health and safety and the shadow of job losses looming large, our leaders still seem to have been preoccupied by devising policies on nuclear weapons, the war in Afghanistan, the future of the European Union and climate change.

At a recent meeting of shop stewards, a local union leader, who decided to tell us that we had to do our bit for Labour, was shocked when they were told in no uncertain terms, that members were not interested in the politics but in the issues in the workplace. Members feel that the union leaders spend excessive time and money expanding the sphere of their political influence when on many issues they still fail abysmally to represent workers on the shop-floor in battles over conditions and areas of dispute.