{"id":7696,"date":"2016-02-10T13:04:42","date_gmt":"2016-02-10T13:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=7696"},"modified":"2016-02-10T13:04:42","modified_gmt":"2016-02-10T13:04:42","slug":"thats-when-i-joined-the-union","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=7696","title":{"rendered":"“That’s when I joined the union”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In Part 3 of our Heart Unions series, UniteLive speaks with a young rep working in the retail sector — a growing industry as the economy hurtles towards insecure, low-wage jobs.<\/p>\n

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James* is one of a growing number of young people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve fully embraced trade unionism \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now a workplace rep at 20 years old, he started working when he was 16 and joined the union at 18.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen I first started working, I was doing three days a week because I was studying at college at the time,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 James explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bA manager came to me in the office and told me I had to change my hours. I told him I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t because I was in college and then he threatened me \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he said if I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t change my hours I would be sacked.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI was just 16 at the time and didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know my rights \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a clue; I was na\u0102\u017bve,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he went on to say. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bSo I started doing the new hours to the detriment of my studying.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nLater, a team leader told James that he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to change his hours and that college came first.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI got lucky in that instance that the team leader supported me,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 James explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut that wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the only problem I had. It kept happening \u00e2\u20ac\u201c management bullying, not just against me but against other staff, too.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThat\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when I told myself \u00e2\u20ac\u201c I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sick of this. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s when I joined the union.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nJames noted that joining the union completely changed his workplace.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAnd as soon as I joined the union and became involved by becoming a rep, all of that management harassment just suddenly stopped.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nBased on his personal experience, James encourages young people, especially those in insecure jobs such as in the retail sector where many young people work, to join a trade union.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bTrade unions give young people in particular a voice in their workplace,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bEspecially if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re young, going through, for example a disciplinary, can be quite scary. Being in a trade union means you have someone who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s trained and experienced to back you up. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s very reassuring.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nJames notes that even though it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been historically difficult to organise workers in retail, he says things are slowly changing.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou have more union members in retail depos and things like that, but in the actual shops, many of the employees just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how union membership can help them. It is starting to catch on though, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m seeing it happen personally \u00e2\u20ac\u201c but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve still got a ways to go. I do see a strong trade union presence in retail in the future; we just need the support to get there.<\/p>\n

 
\nJames had strong criticism for the trade union Bill.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe government is acting as though trade unions exist to start some sort of revolution,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut they have no idea what trade unions actually do. We have a very straightforward function \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to represent and protect people in work; to make the workplace a safer, more equal and better one.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut now with this Bill, all of that is under threat \u00e2\u20ac\u201c it won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t benefit anyone, not even business.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nFind out how you can help fight the trade union Bill during Heart Unions week \u00e2\u20ac\u201c more here<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 
\n*Name has been changed to protect identity<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In Part 3 of our Heart Unions series, UniteLive speaks with a young rep working in the retail sector — a growing industry as the economy hurtles towards insecure, low-wage jobs.   James* is one of a growing number of young people who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve fully embraced trade unionism \u00e2\u20ac\u201c now a workplace rep at 20 years […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7699,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[483],"wps_subtitle":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7696"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7696"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7696\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7700,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7696\/revisions\/7700"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/7699"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}