MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Moral rules and trade union principles
and therefore.…. But I think that we got away from that a little
bit. (Interviewee H)
They directly interfered, in fact they sought to put a stop to
progress on the partnership agreement, for example in Barclays
which is why I made myself extremely unpopular with the
Executive despite the fact I was a member of the Executive --
because my election in the old UNiFI carried over the first year
in the new union -- so I was a member, and a vocal member but
the same time I was an official and I had to give my reports to
the Executive the same way as everybody else’s. A curious
position wearing two hats. They organised against the whole
thrust of the partnership deal. There is absolutely no doubt that
when it came to the presentation of the Barclays report, they
were all there. You could see them, they all had their scripts
and their questions and their points of order and their references
back and their rule this and rule that, all attempting -- it might
only have involved half a dozen people on executive of 35 but
you know as well as I do that that can be extremely effective.
(Interviewee F)
UNiFI managers make significantly positive and constructive
observations about the process of managing in a representative
organisation:-
We have national committees in both of those organisations of
about 12 to 14 or 15, something like that. I believe that we have
collaborative relationships and again we work together.
(Interviewee H)
To be fair, the real management of that lies with the lay structure
because it is up to us professionally to ensure that the President
and Vice President are totally au fait with the situation. They
have got to be the ones who say "no I'm not going to take that."
And we're working very well in that respect. That was a terrible
problem in the old BIFU but it is no longer a problem.
(Interviewee O)
My role I think here's in some ways as a facilitator. You have the
staff, the full time officers, or with roles and responsibilities. You
have the lay structure of the union who have their agenda, their
priorities and sometimes those need to be brought into one
(interviewee C)
There is no substitute, I don't believe, for having committees of
the lay people who will give up their time to sit on committees
and who will tell you the real concerns. So I use the committees
greatly and that is how I see my role. If you were to ask me my
real priorities it would be, number one, ascertaining the concerns
and the wishes of the membership. (Interviewee M)
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