MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Merger management
This will obviously involve looking at the management structure as well
as the lay member structure. So how was merger managed at the
management level?
The union did have some external help right at the outset in that certain
managers went to Cranfield to examine merger management issues:-
I had heard about what Cranfield had been doing in relation to
the TUC. I came back and I sold it to the leadership of the NCU
who put it to the leadership of the UCW. Both unions eventually
bought into it. The UCW much more reluctantly than the NCU.
When it actually took place the NCU provided many more
participants : the UCW was antipathetic to the idea and this was
reflected in very poor participation. Whereas I thought that it
would be a process and that Cranfield would do a number of
things before. during and after the merger, in effect it was just
one round of "getting to know you" seminars. So it's not their
fault that they didn't have a bigger influence on the merger. It's
just that we did not make proper use of them (Interviewee L)
In consequence:-
We didn't actually take seriously that building the union was
more than writing a rule book and devising structures. There
were these profound issues of culture which had to be
addressed and they were very sensitive and would take a lot of
time. We still haven't in many senses addressed that. Time, as
you know, has a way of smoothing over some edges but there
are still a lot of outstanding issues. (Interviewee L)
This is corroborated from another source:-
We still have huge cultural problems where you do things
according to what your background was. It must be very difficult
for new people coming in. It is not quite are you a big ender or a
little ender but it's not far off that. And the new people must sort
of gulp. So that's still a problem. (Interviewee G)
That problem may have been exacerbated by the inevitability, in an
industrially delineated union, of the election of a General Secretary
from one of the industrial areas:-
It's the problem when you take a new General Secretary -- the
same could have happened if it was telecoms person -- you
come from one cultural way of doing things and nobody has
actually set down and talked through, well what are the new
terms of reference for each of the senior parties in the new
organisation. It's not the same organisation therefore your roles
and expectations are not the same. (Interviewee G)
Apart from a commitment on job loss:-
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