Postal Industrial Constituency Organising and Recruitment
No. 488/21
Dear Colleagues,
Postal Industrial Constituency Organising and Recruitment
Following the carriage of a document by the Postal Executive on Tuesday 2nd November 2021 which outlined our commitment to Organising and Recruitment in our core businesses, this LTB summarises the change to our Organising and Recruitment Strategy going forward.
The whole profile of Organising and Recruitment needs to be the central focus of all Branches, Divisional Committees and Parcel Regional Meetings. To that end we have devised a process to report on the efforts of Branches/Divisions/Parcel Regional Meetings in this regard.
Listed below are a number of strategic principles and approaches that the Department has compiled in light of the recent concerns raised by the SDGS regarding membership numbers and the need for us all to intensify our recruitment activity. This list is not exhaustive and will always be subject to revisions as we welcome input from the Postal Executive and prioritise this issue on the Postal Executive agenda.
Key Principles and Approach:
With immediate effect the following steps must be adopted by Branches/Divisional Committees/Parcels Regional Meetings:
Postal Branches carry the overall responsibility for Organising and Recruitment in their area. Branches should therefore have a structured approach to recruitment which should not be left for one or two individuals to carry out alone. In effect, every Branch Representative is a Recruitment Officer and should be expected to participate in any capacity they can;
Recruitment should be a standard agenda item at Branch Committee meetings and given the highest priority. We will provide a standard Recruitment and Organising agenda, advice and information which committees can use to structure their recruitment activity;
We will encourage Branches to provide regular reports to their Royal Mail Divisional Representatives and PFW Regional Organisers. The Department will engage our Senior Field Officials to ensure Recruitment and Organising is a regular agenda item at RM Divisional and PFW Regional Representatives meetings;
Postal Executive members, when attending RM Divisional and PFW Regional meetings, will be in a position to note and report back to the Senior Organiser on the progress being made, barriers being encountered and identify new ideas and initiatives that can be formulated into a best practice strategy document, which can then be circulated and added to the DGS(P) Department Portal, currently under development;
Using these reports, we will subsequently be able to identify where there is a problem and where a Branch might require additional support from the Senior Organiser, RM Divisional or PFW Regional Representatives and/or a Postal Executive member;
The Postal Executive will be supplied with a monthly update detailing the number of new joiners, new members, non-joiners and overall membership numbers;
The Department will undertake a review to ensure that all recruitment literature is still fit for purpose. In addition, the Senior Organiser will look at producing videos and literature to target different groups of workers explaining the value of membership. For example, women, young workers and diverse cultures and ethnicity;
While focusing on recruitment, we also need to ensure that members’ information is correct and that members are on the appropriate membership rate. We will develop a format to encourage this detailed information in due course;
If a Branch is identified as still encountering difficulties, the Department will contact them and offer direct support from the Senior Organiser/Postal Organiser. In addition, assistance from the RM Divisional/PFW Regional Representatives and/or the appropriate Postal Executive will also be provided.
Branches will recall that, prior to the pandemic, the Department had made arrangements to hold an Organising and Recruitment Session with our Senior Field Officials in Liverpool, which was planned as a follow up to the successful event held in Birmingham on 24th November 2016. The event was due to be an interactive one and would have been workshop based. It is still the intention of the Department to hold a workshop sometime in early 2022. However, in the intervening period, another workshop has been developed and can be delivered by Lynn Browne and Steve Brown, our Senior and Postal Organisers, to Branches on an individual or collective basis.
The Department are proactively encouraging Branches to engage with us and take part in this workshop which is available now. Branches who wish to participate in the workshop should contact Lynn Browne on lbrowne@cwu.org
The subjects covered in the workshop are listed below:
One to One Recruitment;
How to Map the Workplace;
How to Set up a Workplace Committee;
Communications;
Handling Objections;
Identifying Future Leaders
We are now in a growth and job creation scenario in the Postal pillar of our Union and the opportunity to grow membership and revenue for the Union must not be missed.
Using the ‘build it and they will come’ mind-set, we also need to focus on the other factors that are important from an organising perspective such as succession planning, further development and function of workplace committees, supporting the next generation of industrial representatives and increasing the number from underrepresented groups.
‘Every Representative and member is a Recruitment Officer and no day or moment should be wasted in increasing our membership’ are part of the Department’s intensified strategy going forward.
Any enquiries in relation to the content of this LTB should be addressed to Lynn Browne, Senior Organiser Postal lbrowne@cwu.org
Yours sincerely,
Terry Pullinger
Deputy General Secretary (Postal)