MICHAEL DEMPSEY - Cranfield University

Moral rules and trade union principles
for the Executive, once they are elected, to be allowed a certain
way to make decisions and then stand on those decisions next
time they are re-elected, which shouldn't be every year, rather
than continually having to go back to the members every time on
every issue on every agreement. The union just can't function
like that because you lose the respect of the employer because
you end up in a situation, a hiatus, where you just can't
negotiate a deal. (Interviewee A)
In addition to our officers being elected every five years, we
elect our entire executive every year. So between February and
May each year, in effect you have an election going on. It is very
hard to ask executive members to think about the strategic
objectives of the union over the next three to five years, where
we should be allocating our resources, what our recruitment
targets should be, what new technology there is likely to be,
what new markets our employers might go into, when in six
months time they will be facing an election in which they could
be back in the local office. I mean, where are their priorities
going to lie? (Interviewee L)
There is also criticism of the extent to which the systems of
representative rationality actually function in the interests of the
members:-
The ultimate stakeholders are, of course, the members and
going to a ballot among the whole of the members on an issue
sometimes got you round some of these problems. So, for
instance, clause 4. I was the only union leader in 1994 to go to
the rostrum and support abolition of clause 4. Thereafter I was
snowed under with resolutions from area committees saying that
the North West Regional Committee of the UCW unanimously
object to any change to clause 4. So I said, fine, we will go to
the members. The new clause 4, the old clause 4, through our
union journal we will give six arguments for change, six
arguments against change and we will ask the members to
decide. The members voted 93% to change clause 4. End of
unanimous resolutions from regional committees. So if that filter
is generally giving you the views of the members , it's very good
but that sent all kinds of alarm bells to me that the filter is
actually giving you the views of union officials, not the views of
the members and whilst they always say how sacrosanct the
views of members are, it is surprising how many times lay
officials try to get a decision that involves groups of people
meeting in a room and having a show of hands but doesn't
involve the ultimate test of democracy which is putting it to the
members. (Interviewee A)
CWU is infused with democratic systems in which there is a high level
of election and in which the governance structures are both substantial
and the members of which are elected annually. Unlike, say, PCS, the
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