Sunday, July 6, 2014 to strike or not strike? a comms dilemma
A strike is likely to take place on July 10 in local government and comms people will have some hard thinking to do. In this post one professional thinks aloud over the difficult choice they face.
by A Local Government Comms Person
Sitting at the heart of a local authority within a corporate comms team often brings about conflict between the decisions and policies of the organisation and your personal views. However, it is the job of the professional to separate the two, and to present the organisation in the best possible light, enhancing, preserving or defending its reputation.
Since I joined my first local authority as an assistant PRO I’ve been plagued by one particular conflict. Can you be in a union if you’re in communications? Or perhaps the question is, should you be?
On 10th July, I may have to walk past colleagues on the picket line to get into my office to do my job.
I have been both in and out of a union. When I was in, I’d joined partly because I felt I should - members were paying to defend my terms and conditions so I should contribute and support too – and partly because my own team was undergoing restructures and budget cuts. We felt we would be more able to negotiate and fight our corner from within the union’s ranks. During this time, I took part in a strike over changes to pensions.
When I was out, I did cross a picket line. It was at the start of what we used to call the ‘credit crunch’ and it didn’t feel right to be complaining when many in the private sector were in a worse position than us. We weren’t getting a pay rise but other people were losing their jobs. My colleagues were diplomatic and gave me leaflets as I drove past their banners and placards.
My dilemma continues to be less about the morality of striking but about the conflict between being a comms person and a striking union member. This issue is something I feel is different for almost any other council post except maybe those in HR.
Day to day I craft and shape words and sentences to explain council business to colleagues across my organisation. It is me who puts words in senior managers’ mouths, giving them the vocabulary to tell employees everything from our corporate priorities, restructures and redundancies to our long service celebrations and staff awards. Particularly now, as my job is solely internal comms, I can see only a forked path between union membership and being a PR professional.
It is me who writes and sends out the message from the Chief Exec which says no leave will be granted on 10th July. It is me who carefully explains changes to terms and conditions which mean my co-workers (and me) have smaller figures in the bottom right hand corner of our payslips. It is me who puts out the rally cry that all line managers should be communicating face to face with their teams because that’s what they want, that helps them feel informed and that’s how we keep our staff on side.
How can I then walk out on 10th July? How can I be taken seriously by union colleagues who know it was me writing the bulletins to staff? How can I maintain my reputation and my solid working relationships if I’m the poacher turned gamekeeper.
But how can I not walk out? Will it do more damage to that reputation and those relationships if I walk past the comrades on the picket line?
There is always thinly veiled wariness of those officers who work at the centre of the organisation. Those who chat about last night’s TV with a senior manager while making a coffee in the shared kitchen are viewed as privileged or protected by those away from the town hall who get to see the mythical characters at the top of the organisation less frequently. Will persuading colleagues from the depot or the children’s centre to engage become even more of a challenge depending on whether I’m in my office or outside the town hall in July?
In reality, unless I join a union between now and 10th July, I will have to cross the picket line. My authority has banned all new requests for leave and does not (like at least one other I know of) allow non-unionised staff to not turn in, so they don’t have to cross the picket line.
What’s the answer? I put it to you my comms colleagues. Do we stand alongside our local government colleagues on 10th July? Do we cross the other line and join the NUJ? Or do we need a unionised arm of the CIPR perhaps, to reflect our unique profession and the positions we hold.
Which fork in the path would you choose?
This post was written by a local government communications professional who wishes to remain anonymous.
Reader Comments (8)
Excellent post tackling an elephant in the room. I am also a local government comms officer. I had never been in the NUJ as a journalist but joined a union on entering local government on the cusp of the financial crisis, when it felt a wise move to be represented.
I have always steadfastly trodden the line of political impartiality in the work place. It's a given in the job we do. At the same time, I have always felt it important to hold true to your principles and feel being a union member to be a matter of conscience. The same with taking strike action. I have felt alienated as the only union member in my comms team - I have had colleagues who assumed no one who did comms would be in a union. I have wrestled with the same dilemma and reconciled myself with it. For me, there is no contradiction in being a professional communicator committed to protecting and enhancing your organisation's reputation and standing up and showing solidarity with your colleagues. Especially as, like the majority of union members, I do not take action for myself but for those with the least power and the least ability to defend themselves. I appreciate this may sound holier-than-thou.
My union's strapline of 'Speaking up for public services' chimes with why I feel passionate about being a local government communicator. I do not feel that as the 'corporate mouthpiece' in some people's eyes (the corporate conscience in others') we are excluded from being able to take a principled stand alongside our colleagues, in support of the services and staff we champion.
In response to your final question, local government PR officers can (as I am) be joint members of both UNISON and the NUJ, without paying any additional subs. Contact the NUJ PR branch for details.
To me, this is a really fundamental post that cuts not just to the heart of communications but you as a communications person.
I've always been in the NUJ. Or rather, I have since 1995 and even though I've left local government it wouldn't occur for me not to be in it because while the exact nature of the help changes the helping hand doesn't.
Strike or not to strike? I've done both.
Earlier in my career I thought that as a comms person for the organisation I'd better not. It's not the done thing, is it? Besides, I wasn't in one of the Town Hall unions that was going on strike so I didn't question it.
About two years ago when local government last went on strike I had a serious think. I thought of some words our chief executive used about an other unrelated incident and that for every decision there has to be a consequence. I thought of the pay and grading which had damaged mine and so many people's saleries. I thought of the changes to the pension that were damaging and I thought about Jo Smith from Argyll & Bute who won her case for unfair dismissal thanks to her NUJ membership and the legal advice she was given in her darkest hour. I thought about how at the end of the day we are all individuals employed by a larger organisation, regardless of position whether cleaner, comms person or chief exec. I was reminded that the council didn't have lists of people who were in or out of a union and that if you went on strike you'd be covered (check this with a friendly union representative, by all means.)
I was also reminded by the fact that often critics think comms teams are invivisible mouthpieces of the organisation. They're not. If you do, go and read your constitution and be reminded that there are clear roles and red lines in your work as a comms professional. In fact, strike or no strike, go and read your organisation's constitution and code of conduct to see what you are both able and not able to do. If you haven't done that you are flying through the fog by the seat of your pants and I suggest you are storing up trouble.
I decided to go on strike and it was the hardest decision to make but by far the easiest to live with and I've never regretted it.
Whatever decision you do make, make it knowing that as a local government officer you are perfectly able to go on strike lawfully and make it after you check the facts.
Could I just point out that it's not just local government people going on strike on July 10? Sorry to be a pedant, I just thought it was an important point.
I too work in local gov comms and and over the years, I have been a member, not been a member, striked and not striked.
For me it's a personal matter. I am paid to do a job in the same way anyone else is paid to do a job. If a nurse did or didn't strike, I would not question their ability or commitment to the role, so why should we be any different.
I don't think anyone should be using the 'because it's my job and I have to go in excuse' (unless it's clear in the constitution and the terms and conditions of your role). Over the years I have become very tired of hearing that from people who just don't want to strike. If you believe in the actions of the strike and want to support it then do, if you don't then don't.
As comms professionals, we should continue to be just that - professional, but it doesn't mean that we have to have our personal values and beliefs taken away from us.
There's a couple of big questions in this piece - and Dan and others have already written persuasive responses.
Firstly, should you be in a union? Simply, the answer must be yes. Very few of us go through life without needing help or support at some time. Nearly all of us have better terms and conditions because of the work of trade unions. Trade unions were (and are) at the forefront of getting (and protecting) decent time off, equality in the workplace, pensions and many, many more things so many take for granted. They can do this best when they speak for as many people as possible, and know that their negotiations are backed by those people.
There's also self-protection. I remember my old union branch would deal with personal cases for around ten per cent of staff each year. The workplace wasn't bad, but cuts and daft policies on issues like performance pay meant that lots of people had cause to be glad of the benefit of someone with a bit of expertise to argue their case or give advice when needed. There was big stuff too. I recall one fairly senior manager facing the sack for sending around emails about a fantasy football league on the internal email. Crazy stuff, but he was delighted that he was a member when the union sorted that one out.
If you work in local or national government communications, there's every chance you'll have a union negotiating your 'pay and rations' - probably Unison, PCS or Prospect. Then you'll also be able to be an NUJ member, as the NUJ represents PR and communications workers everywhere. The added bonus is that the NUJ have an agreement with most unions (including those above) for joint membership which won't cost you any more. What you will get is specific support relating to your professional role, as well as a great link to others working in journalism.
The next issue is 'to strike, or not to strike'. I reckon the other contributors have covered this well, but the reality is that people working in communications need to know people can trust their judgement. I suspect the author's judgement is that they know the right thing to do is to strike, but they're not sure if other (senior) people will think it is. In my thirty years or so working, I have consistently seen top tiers of management show more respect for those who stand by their values and follow the democratic mandate of the strike ballot than I have when people think they are somehow too important to do that, and cross a picket line. I guess when we work for democratic organisations like councils or governments, the democracy of strike ballots is an extra factor the private sector doesn't have. The world won't stop spinning if you're not the desk for a day, but if you withdraw your labour you are at least demonstrating the value of that labour by its absence.
Will you be a hypocrite because you also pen the words defending cuts, hard decisions or explaining issues for the senior leadership? No more than anyone else who, as a professional, has to do a day job which doesn't entirely chime with their own personal ideals or beliefs. So the canteen cook who can't use the finest organic produce will do their best with what they have, because they're professional. The patient transport driver will still drive as well as they can, even though it isn't the most modern bus. And the comms professional will draft up the best work we can, even if we don't like the message. And hopefully, we can all stand together on the picket line, standing together to protect the quality of the services we want to provide, making a stand to say we're proud of what we do and think it shouldn't be cut.
Am I biased? Well, I'm active in the NUJ, and think trade unions have a lot to offer, so probably. Feel free to keep an eye on @NUJ_PRmembers on twitter, as well as the NUJ website.
A great post and an issue that many a comms person has deliberated over. And will again.
Like others, I have both striked and not gone on strike. As other have so eloquently said already, it has to boil down to your own opinions on the issues at the heart of a strike.
So long as you are authentic, true to your personal beliefs (and not out of kilter with your organisation's constitution and terms and conditions) you'll be comfortable with your decision. And probably a little worse off come pay day.
Good luck with whatever you decide.
Darren
I think the debate about the forthcoming public sector strike is a timely and good one.
I am a former local government PR manager who faced this dilemma in a major way back in the late ‘70’s and early ‘80’s when the NUJ was in dispute with the Nottingham Evening Post. That lasted six years, during which, technically I was supposed not to have anything to do with the NEP, our only local evening newspaper.
As an established NUJ member, I agonised about this. My employers had done nothing to upset the NUJ. In fact, most of my seniors came from working class backgrounds and understood trades unionism. And we were working for a Labour council.
But I was still technically supposed to carry on doing my job, including supplying the NEP.
In the end, I compromised. I did withhold a lot of material from the NEP. I also re-routed their enquiries to people who were not NUJ members. I got local radio and tv and other papers to do us favours to keep my employers happy.
And in compensation, I also attended NUJ picket lines almost daily, got manhandled by the police, filmed by Special Branch (yes, I’m a wanted man!) attended their meetings and contributed to their strike fund.
I think these things are a matter of conscience and compromise. I wouldn’t have served the cause any better by completely refusing to do my job and getting sacked.
My boss clearly understood where I was coming from, although frustrated that the institution’s PR might suffer.
But that’s life.
Tim Jones, Vice Chair, National Union of Journalists Public Relations Council.
Great discussion. For me it's quite simple. If you're in any union involved you go out on strike. Even if, as I did, you voted against in the strike ballot. I appreciate it's a bit harder if you're not in the union, but its important to remember that everyone benefits from anything that collective action achieves. In Comms we are relatively well paid and well looked after but many of our colleagues on the front line don't do as well.