WE have seen a steady increase in membership as a trade union movement over the last few years and even more so through the pandemic. 

But we in the unions still have a long way to go when we are representing less than a quarter of all workers and even less in the private sector, which is where BFAWU members work.

We find that too many employers in the private sector use anti-union rhetoric — anything from “you don’t need a union, we are supportive,” to “trade unions are just trouble causers,” right through to, in some cases, threatening to sack people for joining trade unions.

I remember being stood on a gate in the early hours of a winter’s morning being told by more than a few workers: “Please don’t talk to us, they are watching and I need my job.”

Small and medium-sized businesses seem to be the least likely place to find a union branch.

I’m not sure if that’s because they don’t have a large potential or whether it takes up too many resources to target a few at once, but we definitely need to focus on those workplaces, as they are the most likely places to need our input to ensure people are safe and treated in accordance with their rights.

Young workers are still a massive challenge to the trade union movement. 

Typically, if they aren’t from a trade union family, they don’t really know what a trade union is other than what they see in mainstream news — which, let’s face it, does us no favours at all.

They do not understand why they should pay to be in a trade union.

There is this expectation that your first job out of school will be crap, low-paid and awful work, but that it’s OK because you will move on to something better.

We need to amplify the message better that it’s not OK, that it doesn’t matter whether you are in a job for a few weeks or for years, you should be treated with dignity and respect and be paid a decent wage for the work you do.

Because the reality is, if you accept poor treatment in your first job, you are less likely to challenge it in future employment.

We’ve done some great work with McDonald’s and Wetherspoon workers around this, engaging predominantly young workers around problems that affect them and empowering them to stand together and demand better, with some success — most recently with Tim Martin’s furlough turnaround and I know others have done similar.

But we need to do more. Most young people don’t understand the need for union bureaucracy, adhering to a rule book that’s been around long before they were even thought of and using terms and language they don’t understand either.

They don’t care for the rules around simply being able to go out on strike and the number of hoops to be jumped through to get there.

They just want to resolve the issues they are facing quickly and successfully — which in reality is no different from older workers.

They also don’t need us as trade unions telling them what we think their issues are, but need us to listen to them and support them in fighting against their injustices.

There are too many people in recognised workplaces who aren’t union members — this is something we picked up on a while ago now — and too many branches with nowhere near 100 per cent density, leaving massive potential in membership for us.

So we have been focusing on our established branches, looking at how we increase the membership within them and working with the branch secretaries on that, looking at whether we need more reps, more union presence in terms of open days and roadshows, or better noticeboards and communication.

We’ve made some headway but still have work to do, making sure the foundations are in place to enable the reps and officials to work on increasing the membership and engaging activists in the branches.

We also know that in our industry, like many others, those most in need of a trade union are the least likely to be in one, for a number of reasons.

That’s why we began the fast-food campaign — we became aware of the poor conditions people were working in and knew we had to do something to help.

But that’s just one area of the economy. There are so many more that need the same attention.

Stronger Unions said a few years ago that there was a problem in London and south-east England in terms of membership levels, and I know we have noticed internally that it is a fair reflection of our membership levels still in that region too.

Other than pockets of membership in McDonald’s and Wetherspoon, where we have had a long-term sustained focus, our membership has over the last few years slowly fallen in the area — and we seem to struggle to engage members to become representatives, despite the hard work put in by the full-time officials and existing branch representatives

The movement is ageing, as are the representatives and officials within it.

I know the TUC did a study a while ago around this area but the situation is not changing.

I’m hoping in our union, with me being a relatively young general secretary, it will inspire our young members to become active and stand for positions and as a result draw in more young members — only time will tell.

If we don’t change the demographic and encourage a new wave of leaders both locally and nationally we will fade away, which will be a tragedy, especially against the backdrop of a Tory government that doesn’t care about working people.

I’m hopeful, though, that some of the lessons we have learned through the pandemic, especially around being more digitally aware as a movement, will help us reach out to those who haven’t thought of engaging with us before, or have not even heard of a trade union, that they will see what we do — and want to be part of it.