Can I add my tuppence worth as a moderately active member of both LA and
IIS, and a trade unionist (chair of my MSF branch)
There are around seventy TUC affiliated trade unions (TUs): why do we
need another one?
Not true, as one correspondent asserted, that library members are
ignored in existing TUs, expect in the all too familiar situation where
no one from the library staff will come forward to act as a rep. When I
worked in public libraries, several of the NALGO branch officers were
from the libraries department, and we had the support of colleagues
across the council in grading disputes and a successful campaign against
branch closures. This happened because we went out and worked for it.
Whether in the LA/IIS or a TU, the British disease of letting someone
else do the work and then moaning about shouldn't be tolerated.
The best thing to do, which used to happen with the LA, and which we
must make happen in the new organisation, is for CILIP staff and lay
officers and officers of the TUs representing lis staff to work
together: there used to be very good links between Ridgmount Street and
the TUs but I sense these may need to be revitalised.
Tom Roper, Head of RCVS Library and Information Service
Tel (library): +44 (0)20 7222 2021
Direct line: +44 (0)20 7202 0721
Fax: +44 (0)20 7222 2004
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
Web site: http://www.rcvslibrary.org.uk
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