You are:

Getting more involved in our union

We encourage all union members to get involved in our union. There are many ways to get involved and it doesn’t have to take up a lot of time.

Help us be more representative

It is important that as many union members as possible go to union meetings and make sure that their views are heard.

We want more young members, women, members from ethnic minorities, members with disabilities and gay and lesbian members to get involved. This is because these members are under represented. For example – 60 per cent of PCS members are women but only 45 per cent of PCS reps are women. We want to be a union where our reps are fully representative of our membership.

There are lots of other ways you can get involved

As a workplace union rep

Being a PCS rep in your workplace is not as complicated as you might think. The rep’s main job is to listen to members and make sure their views are represented inside the union, to keep members informed and to tell new staff about the union and ask them to join. As you gain experience and confidence, you can get more involved in dealing with management and helping members with problems if you want to. We can arrange for you to get time off work and full support and union training.

As a contact or a distributor

You don’t have to give up much time at all. You can help, get involved and keep yourself up-to-date about what is going on by just being a contact point or a distributor, updating union noticeboards and giving out some union circulars in your work area.

As a young members’ rep

We have an active young member’s network and all branches are asked to elect a young members’ rep. If you are aged 27 or under and have ideas about building a better union this could be for you.

As an equality rep

We campaign on a wide range of equality issues. If you are interested, ask your branch secretary about getting involved as a branch equality rep or helping on equality issues. In most areas there are equality committees to advise the union on policy for:

  • women
  • black members
  • gay, lesbian bisexual and transgender members.

If you want to get involved in one of these, all you need to do is get another union member to put you forward at your branch AGM.

As a health and safety rep

Union heath and safety reps do a really important job. Carrying out workplace inspections and risk assessments. You would have to be trained and you get time off for this training.

As a union learning rep

Union learning reps get time off to help staff develop and take up learning opportunities. ULRs cover everything from basic skills to computer skills and CV writing. They also help to recruit potential members to join PCS.

As an environmental/green rep

Raising awareness and encouraging green practices - such as recycling and energy saving - are becoming increasingly important in the workplace. As an environmental or green rep you can also get involved in developing best environmental practice in your workplace as well as promoting the campaigns we support.

By being an active member

Maybe you don’t want to get too involved. You can still play a really important part in your union by just being an active member. Here are five things you can do:

  1. attend union meetings and have your say
  2. encourage your colleagues to join and support union campaigns
  3. tell your reps about problems in your office
  4. join in picket lines during disputes and
  5. ask what else you can do to help.