Let me try to respond to some of the points which have been raised in the
discussion so far. I'm someone who is active both in CILIP, as a National
Councillor, and in her trade union, Prospect, the union which represents
professionals and specialists in central government, agencies,
non-departmental public bodies and the private sector, where I chair the
Librarians and Information Professionals' Group of the union.
The medical professions and bodies like the NFU can act as trade unions
because they have, generally speaking, only one employer to deal with when
negotiating salaries, terms and conditions, and speak for all or nearly all
their members in that single negotiation. Librarians have thousands of
different employers, and are frequently employed in ones and twos. No
employer is going to talk to anyone who does not represent a substantial
section of their workforce because it's not worth their time, and equally no
employer is going to want a small number of their workers to have completely
different salary scales and terms to the rest of their workforce - the
logical outcome if a separate body were to negotiate on their behalf, else
why bother?
Librarians and information professionals in my union meet together as a
group, to share experience and information, and support colleagues, and the
union's HQ and its branches draw on the expertise we can provide when
negotiating on specific librarian issues - gradings, threats to services,
etc. Equally, we as a group turn to CILIP for advice and support when we
need a broader picture or advocacy from the professional body, and we've
always had the support we've needed. CILIP's professional advisers deal
with personal cases, but as CILIP doesn't have representational rights the
way a union does, in appropriate cases it will suggest members approach
their union or join one if they're not already a member. If your union
doesn't have this sort of body, try setting one up formally or informally to
raise awareness of librarian issues.
CILIP nationally can campaign to increase awareness of the importance of
employing information professionals (and paying them adequately) and lobby
individual employers, and it does. But as Julian says, it's up to us to
"prove our worth (and shout about it) to our employers".
Suzanne Burge
Information Manager
Office of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman
******************************************************************
This E-mail and any files transmitted with it are private and
intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom
they are addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, the E-
mail and any files have been transmitted to you in error and any
copying, distribution or other use of the information contained in
them is strictly prohibited.
The original of this email was scanned for viruses by the Government Secure Intranet (GSi) virus scanning service supplied exclusively by Energis in partnership with MessageLabs.
On leaving the GSi this email was certified virus-free
|