dan shears gmb national health and safety dept. 13 th july 2010
TRANSCRIPT
Organising Around Health and Safety
Dan ShearsGMB National Health and Safety Dept.13th July 2010
GMB
General Trade Union
Currently over 610,000 members
Just over 50% work in the public sector
Nine Regions
3 Sections
The GMB Approach
GMB@work strategy sees the workplace reps as the best qualified to represent members at local level…
… and places the rep at the heart of union activity in the workplace.
General Secretary Paul Kenny instigated the annual Daniel Dennis H&S Representative of the Year award at annual GMB Congress
Organising Tools
GMB Publications “ Using H&S as an organising tool” (2006)
Other dedicated H&S publications dedicated to sectoral interests, Retail, Waste, Schools, Care Homes
Making it happen…
Real case studies of GMB Safety Reps in action:
ASDA – Northern region rep who pushes H&S on the Agenda in Asda stores
Worcester County Council – Birmingham region rep who ensured physical attacks were taken seriously by employer ion lone working
Making it happen…
North West region rep in Court services who ensured regular cleaning and maintenance of vehicles
Southern Region rep who helped establish national H&S committee and examined strategy for lone security guards in G4S
Making it happen…
Midland rep who used English language courses to inform migrant workers on safety issues
Birmingham rep who used an assault on one of his members to initiate campaign on redesigning the working environment in CVIT
Making it happen…
Southern region rep who used the “Safeguard” campaign against security officer attacks to get better H&S and sick pay
London region rep who used Workers Memorial Day to organise in ASDA
Key Points
All of these examples have much in common- principally dedicated reps using workplace H&S problems to demonstrate the importance of trade union membership and growth.
GMB training emphasises the importance of the SRSC regulations – these reps do the hard part – putting them into action!
Now it’s over to you…
Thank You for your time
Any Comments or Questions?
For more info: [email protected]