MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Trade union managers
Alan Churchard, Deputy General Secretary (ex CPSA)
Joan Easton, Personnel Manager (joint union appointment)
Jill Evans, Senior National Officer (ex PTC)
Mike King, Regional Secretary Leeds (ex PTC)
Hugh Lanning Assistant General Secretary (ex PTC)
Jim McAuslan, Deputy General Secretary (ex IRSF)
Keith Mills, General Treasurer (ex CPSA)
Dave Newlyn, Financial Officer (ex PTC)
Gordon Patterson, IT Manager (ex CPSA)
Eddie Reilly, Scottish Secretary (former DGS – ex PTC)
Colin Sambrook, Senior National Officer (ex IRSF)
John Sheldon, Joint General Secretary (ex PTC)
Trade Union Managers
6.8. All of the interviewees in PCS accepted that they had a management
role. Most were quite practical about it – even analytical:-
I suppose if I added up my time I would probably spend about
50% of my time in a negotiating role for the high-level
commitments that we have with the departments and managers.
So I probably spend about 50% of my time on that. The rest of
my time I spend on management (Interviewee M)
In one case the acceptance was somewhat reluctant, arrived at by
force of circumstances:-
I believe it was probably only around about the late 1980s when
really it was starting to dawn on us -- and at that time I was
Deputy General Secretary -- that these were now big, big
organisations that had to be managed and run in terms of the
finances etc and I think a lot of us became resentful at the
amount of time that we were being asked to spend on
management. One because we thought, what are we doing
sitting behind desks, tracing paper all the time, answering
queries and all the rest of it. The feeling that that was not what
we came into the movement to do produced a good deal of
resentment and I think even yet, people of my generation -- I am
51 now, probably look a lot older -- still feel a bit resentful at the
amount of time that the administration and management of the
union takes up………….. We were now having to deal with 150
or 200 sets of bargaining and put a structure out there. We then
started to realise, well, that structure has to be managed, now,
as well, not only in the region but also in relation to the centre or
you lose all control over what you are doing with your resources.
So all that, I think, started to force us to say, well, whether we
like this or not, this is a key part of the job. (Interviewee D)
The suggestion was that the role had been institutionalised:-
We also use the terminology "senior managers" and
"management briefings" (Interviewee N)
133