MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Clapham but actually much nearer Clapham, is also the product of the
division between postal and telecoms, and therefore between ex UCW
and ex NCU. There are two industrial Executives and the National
Executive is comprised of the two industrial Executives brought
together. At staff level, the two major industrial groupings are also
separated on different floors, with cultural artefacts from the old unions’
headquarters displayed on those floors. This serves to indicate that, as
will appear below, functional merger has been slow and the current
General Secretary and his team have set themselves the task of
speeding up the process.
5.5. A matter of significance in terms of the management of the union is the
high level of election of officers which takes place. This is something
which the union has taken from the UCW which elected everyone with
any form of responsibility for negotiations or for functions. The NCU, by
contrast, appointed everyone below Deputy General Secretary level.
Whilst not all appointed negotiators were required to stand for election
on merger, the Deputy General Secretaries, all other new national
negotiators and two other National Secretaries with responsibility for
Legal and Medical services and membership records are now elected.
Functional managers are appointed, so the result, whilst it involves a
substantial element of ex UCW practice, does stop short of the more
radical practices mentioned by Alan Johnson. It is, nevertheless,
different from the practices in any of the other case study unions.
Interviewees
5.6. The General Treasurer, David Norman, made it clear that interviews
would only be possible with those managers whom he identified and
his secretary arranged the interviewees. This meant that several of the
managers were lower level than anticipated and one was an NEC
member who managed the move into the new Head Office. David
Norman himself retired part way through the research and his secretary
left the union at the same time. As a favour, she left a message for her
successor asking her to organise an interview with David Norman’s
successor. Through him, it was also possible to organise an interview
with the new General Secretary and, through him, with a past General
Secretary of one of the partner unions (the other had already been
interviewed). Thus, it was possible to raise the overall hierarchical level
of the interviewees. One Deputy General Secretary indicated (after
David Norman left) that he had not the time for an interview.
Interviewees were:-
Ian Cook, Information Manager (ex UCW)
Roger Darlington, Research Officer (ex NCU)
Jeannie Drake, Deputy General Secretary (ex NCU)
Billy Hayes, General Secretary from 2001 (ex UCW)
Derek Hodgson, General Secretary till 2001 (ex UCW)
Alan Johnson, former General Secretary UCW
Tony Kearns, Senior Deputy General Secretary from 2001 (ex UCW)
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