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Increased strength following successful recruitment week

17 November 2008

During young trade unionist week 2008 young members successfully organised recruitment and social events up and down the country. Held on 17-21 September 2008, we focused on campaigning against low pay and harsh working conditions - especially for call centre workers.

We recruited over 150 young members’ to our network and during the month of September there was an increase in young members volunteering to become branch young members’ officers by 17 – our highest ever recorded jump.

Our national chair, Mark Chisman, describes his experience when he visited Bradford contact centre:

”I met Josh Walsh, local young members’ rep at Bradford Revenue and District branch, who took me on a tour of the contact centre and introduced me to reps there - if they weren't occupied on the phone!

Josh showed me his workstation and explained how the contact centre operated.

The contact centre is responsible for debt management, new tax credits and taxes work. Calls can be routed to Bradford from anywhere in the country.

Stressing our case

Contact centre workers are constantly under pressure not just to reduce the time spent on calls so more calls can be answered to reduce queuing, but also to reduce time spent on unscheduled breaks.

Josh related a story that a member of staff had been disciplined for taking eight seconds longer than 15 minutes on a scheduled break.

HMRC contact centre staff are only allowed two 15 minute breaks a day as well as half an hour for dinner.

It’s important for us to organise more in contact centres.

It’s mainly young people and we need strong union organisation. I have visited a number of contact centres in the region and I can see why stress levels in this particular area of work are so high.”

Activity gets results

Danielle Stafford from the Department for Work and Pensions in Liverpool and a member of the DWP young members’ advisory committee held a workplace event and recruited a staggering 31 young members to the network in one day!

Danielle explains how she did this:

“My initial idea was to do a stall in the canteen, but due to limited resources I had to change my plan.

I did a walk round of the centre, including a desk drop of young members’ literature. I spoke to staff on their breaks and explained about the work of the young members’ network.

I got talking to them about problems they were facing and gave examples of how the network can offer support and help.

Overall people seemed to be really responsive - I was talking to them face-to-face rather than just giving them leaflets to read. I hope they all think I’m more approachable now!!”

Localising our network

In the weeks leading up to young trade unionist week, Alan Warner our Eastern regional YM convenor and Glenn Batty from DWP contact centre in Lowestoft were busy planning a young member recruitment day in Glenn’s workplace.

They encountered some issues getting call centre workers away from their desk.

Nonetheless, Glenn and Alan held a successful meeting on site and gave out information about the young members’ network.

As a result, they are looking at setting up a local network and campaigning against planned office closures.

Talking to our future workers

Our Midlands young members network had a busy week too.

They delivered a young member training session at the regional organising conference and were involved in a recruitment drive in the biggest call centre in the region – HMRC Merryhill.

Mary McCrory, the local YM rep played a crucial role in establishing a branch young member’s officer position within the branch and planned the recruitment event with our Midlands regional young members’ convenors.

Mary says:

”As we were leafleting outside the building at lunch time, we came across a group of 12 school kids who were on their way back to class.

I asked them if they knew what a trade union was and the answers were fascinating - one of them thought we were related to marketing and another thought we were a world wide organisation which negotiates trade agreements between countries!

Not the fault of the school children concerned - they were all bright, intelligent and pleasant kids - but it highlights the need for trade unionists to go into schools and talk to kids as well as the work we do in the workplace.”

Get involved

All in all young trade unionist week was a success for the network.

We plan to build on the achievements and start discussing how we can progress the aims of the PCS call centre charter widely through our parliamentary group.

  • The PCS young members' network is open, inclusive and free to join. Any PCS member aged 27 or under can join our network.
  • We organise on a local, regional and national basis. Contact your regional young members' convenor for more information about how you can participate.