Roger making another Powerpoint presentation
Contents
Personal Introduction Introduction To The CWU Introduction To The CWU Research Department
Roger Darlington works full-time as Head of Research at the Communication Workers Union (CWU), a trade union with almost 300,000 members representing all the non-management staff in Consignia, British Telecom, and related information technology companies, and part-time as Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), a body established by British Internet service providers to combat illegal content, especially child pornography, on the UK Internet.
He is half English and half Italian; his wife is half Welsh and half Czech; and his son has a degree in International Relations!
In 1971, he obtained a First Class Honours Degree in Management Sciences from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology where he spent a year (1969-70) as sabbatical President of the Students’ Union.
Following graduation, he spent six years working for the Labour Party/Labour Government as a Research Assistant/Special Adviser to Rt Hon Merlyn Rees MP in the latter’s capacity as Opposition Spokesperson on Northern Ireland (House of Commons 1972-74), Secretary of State for Northern Ireland (Northern Ireland Office 1974-76) and Home Secretary (Home Office 1976-78). He fought the two General Elections of 1974 as a Labour candidate.
Since 1978 and therefore for the past 23 years, he has been a National Official with what was the Post Office Engineering Union (1978-85), then became the National Communications Union (1985-95), and is now the Communication Workers Union (1995-date).
For the first six years, he was a Research Officer in the Research Department concentrating mainly on technological and regulatory issues. He was then promoted to the main negotiating grade of Assistant Secretary and, over the next six years, held a variety of negotiating posts. Next followed five years with responsibility for policy and international matters.
Then, in January 1995, the creation of the Communication Workers Union - a merger of the former National Communications Union and the former Union of Communication Workers - saw him return to the Research Department as Head of Research. The Department briefs Officers and Executive on all postal, telecommunications, and related matters. As well as managing the Department, he takes special responsibility for strategic, technological and regulatory issues in both the postal and telecommunications industries.
He became Chair of the Internet Watch Foundation on 1 January 2000. Through his work with the IWF, he serves on the Home Office Task Force on the Internet and child protection.
Roger Darlington’s private interests are the cinema (almost all genres), reading (especially modern history), music (especially classical), aviation (especially Second World War), and the social and economic aspects of information technology. He has written a biography - published in English and Czech - of his wife’s father, who was a Second World War night intruder ace. He is an intense user of the Internet and maintains his own web site.
Links:
Communication Workers Union click here
Consignia: click here
British Telecom click here
Internet Watch Foundation click here
HISTORY
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) was formed on 26 January 1995 as a result of a merger between the Union of Communication Workers (UCW) - a mostly postal union with some telecommunications members - and the National Communications Union (NCU) - a mainly telecommunications union with some postal members.
For the first three years, the Union had two headquarters: the former UCW headquarters in Clapham (South London) and the former NCU headquarters in Ealing (West London). However, in December 1997, all the Union’s Officers and staff moved to a new single headquarters in Wimbledon in South London.
MEMBERSHIP
The CWU represents some 280,000 members employed in the postal, telecommunications, information technology and related industries, including those who work for Girobank/Alliance & Leicester.
The main groups of members are :
Post Office 165,000
British Telecom 80,000
Other telecoms companies 8,000
Girobank/Alliance & Leicester 3,000
The CWU is the seventh largest union in Britain. It is the largest communications union in the country and the second largest in Europe.
OBJECTIVES
The main objectives of the CWU are to protect and promote the interests of members and improve their working lives. As an industry-wide union, the CWU is committed to achieving the highest possible membership levels in all communications companies, since this is the best way to protect individual employees, improve general working conditions, and increase the influence of the Union, both with employers and with other bodies such as the Government, industry regulators and the European Commission.
The Union has adopted the following statement of values.
The CWU exists to protect, advance and serve the interests of its members throughout the communications industry. In pursuit of its aims, the Union will seek:
LOCAL STRUCTURE
Every member of the CWU is part of a Branch. Branches and their elected officers provide the main point of contact for individuals with problems and difficulties. They provide information to members on Union activities and are often involved in local negotiations.
Currently there are about 254 Branches of the Union throughout the UK as follows :
Post Office Branches 95
Telecoms Engineering Branches 98
Telecoms Clerical Branches 37
Merged Engineering & Clerical Branches 20
Financial Services Branches 4
Every branch elects delegates to, and determines policies to be debated at, the Annual Conference which is the supreme policy-making body in the Union on industrial as well as general issues. The Conference also has the ability to change the rules of the Union. Annual Conference is held in May or June each year.
NATIONAL STRUCTURE
Between Conferences, the policy decisions are the responsibility of the National Executive Council. The NEC is elected every year by secret ballot from five constituencies which reflect the industrial and occupational background of the members. The constituencies are Clerical, Engineering, Operator & Ancillary, Postal, and Postal Technical Services.
The National Executive Council is responsible for the general management of the Union dealing with all central matters such as organisation, recruitment, finances, services and general policy matters. The NEC operates through a series of 8 Standing Committees as follows :
Industrial issues are dealt with by two Industrial Executives which comprise NEC members from particular industries and occupations. One deals with the telecommunications and financial services and the other handles postal issues.
LEADERSHIP
From the formation of the CWU until May 1997, the Union had two Joint General Secretaries, Alan Johnson and Tony Young, who were General Secretaries of the UCW and NCU respectively. In May 1997, Alan Johnson was elected as a Member of Parliament and Derek Hodgson, then Deputy General Secretary (Postal), became ‘Acting’ Joint General Secretary.
During 1998, there were elections for a single General Secretary and a Senior Deputy General Secretary. These elections were decided by an individual ballot of all CWU members. The General Secretary election was held in April 1998 and resulted in the election of Derek Hodgson. In September 1998, Tony Young was elected Senior Deputy General Secretary.
The other senior officers of the Union are :John Keggie (Deputy General Secretary, Postal), Jeannie Drake (Deputy General Secretary, Telecommunications), and David Norman (General Treasurer).
The Union has a National President and a National Vice-President. These positions are alternated annually between the chairs of the two Industrial Executives who are elected as part of the National Executive Council elections.
ADVISORY COMMITTEES
The Union is committed to promoting and campaigning on equal opportunities and has four Advisory Committees which guide the National Executive Council on equality issues. The Advisory Committees, which include a majority of ordinary Union members, are as follows :
The CWU also has an Advisory Committee to promote the interests of retired members.
CONFERENCES
Every year, the CWU has a National Conference lasting six days. The first four days are devoted to industrial and occupational issues, while the last two days are spent on political and general issues of concern to all members.
Every four years, the CWU has a Rules Revision Conference, lasting three days. This Conference considers changes to the Union’s Rule Book.
Normally CWU Conferences are held in Bournemouth.
AFFILIATIONS
The CWU is affiliated, and sends delegations when necessary, to the Trades Union Congress, the Scottish Trades Union Congress, the Labour Party, the Union Network International (UNI) and various other organisations as determined by Annual Conference.
The CWU has :
Link: CWU Web site click here
HISTORY
Both the predecessor organisations to the Communication Workers Union (CWU) had a strong tradition of trade union research. The former Union of Communication Workers (UCW) founded its Research Department in May 1920 - making it one of the first in the British trade union movement - and the former National Communications Union (NCU) established its Research Department in April 1949. As soon as the CWU was created on 26 January 1995, a combined Research Department was established under one Head of Research.
LOCATION
For the first three years of the CWU, the Union operated from two headquarters: the former NCU building in Ealing and the former UCW building in Clapham separated by some 12 miles. During that time, the CWU Research Department had personnel in both headquarters buildings, but it operated as a unitary department and had meetings of all members every month alternately in Clapham and Ealing. All the CWU’s Officers and staff moved to one site in Wimbledon in December 1997.
FUNCTION
The prime purpose of the Research Department is to provide Executive members and officers with factual and statistical briefing for the purposes of:
The secondary purpose of the Department is to meet all reasonable requests for relevant information from outside Union Headquarters with particular reference to CWU Branches.
Our core resource is information and our core functions are the storage, analysis and provision of this information. We aim to make our information resource as comprehensive and up-to-date as time and money allow with the emphasis on posts, telecommunications, financial services and related industries.
Necessarily much of the storage of information is currently in researchers' files and the library, but archiving will now be in the form of document image processing and over time an increasing volume of information will be stored in electronic form and capable of access remotely.
The provision of information is primarily in response to specific requests from Officers and Committees, but the Department uses its initiative in advising colleagues of useful information.
Commissioned work always takes priority and agreed deadlines are always met except when varied by agreement with the customer. The aim is always be to produce work which is accurate, accessible and attractive.
WORK
The main areas of work of the Department are as follows :
Collective bargaining issues
The CWU now represents members in almost 40 collective bargaining units and, in relation to most of these units, the Department provides briefing to support the negotiating officers. The main issue is pay, which is negotiated annually in almost every case, but the other conditions of service issues covered include various allowances, hours, leave, maternity/paternity leave, and pensions. In the case of most bargaining units, a detailed pay brief is prepared and, in the case of the major units such as British Telecom and Royal Mail, detailed follow-up support is given. In the past four years, a substantial research effort has gone into supporting a complex set of negotiations - formerly known as the Employee Agenda and now known as The Way Forward - concerning pay structures and working practices in Royal Mail.
Wider industrial issues
The Department regularly provides briefing and support in relation to a range of strategic issues affecting the industries in which our members work, notably posts, telecommunications and banking. These issues include ownership, regulation, technology, competition, and markets. Frequently this involves submissions to Government Departments, Parliamentary Committees, Oftel, Postcomm, the European Commission, and various enquiries. Early in 1997, the Department produced major policy statements on the future of the Post Office and the future of telecommunications. Following the election of a Labour government, the Department has drafted submissions to the Post Office review, the review on the regulation of the utilities, and the review on the regulation of convergence.
Wider political issues
The Department routinely provides briefing and support in relation to national, regional, and sectional conferences of the Labour Party and the Trades Union Congress (TUC), as well as Working Groups and Congresses of our international trade secretariat Union Network International (UNI). This usually involves briefing on the subjects for discussion or debate and drafting speeches where CWU representatives wish to make a particular contribution. CWU delegations visiting other countries and foreign delegations visiting the CWU are briefed by the Department.
Much of our work is commissioned, although the Department frequently takes the initiative in providing colleagues with information or material which will inform or assist them.
Most of our work is written, but Research Officers do lecture on Union education courses and occasionally make presentations to the Union's Executive and outside bodies.
STAFFING
The composition of the Department is as follows:
STYLE
We work collaboratively as a team. Whenever timescales permit, we consult each other on drafts of work and seek advice on ideas and sources. Whenever appropriate, meeting notes and completed work are circulated to foster wider knowledge and understanding.
We work flexibly. Although each member of the Department has defined areas of lead responsibility, we assist each other when colleagues are under pressure or on leave and, following consultation, we accept periodic adjustments to responsibilities and workloads.
We work proactively. Although commissioned work takes priority, colleagues are encouraged to suggest areas where the union needs to do new thinking, especially of a strategic or forward-looking nature. Such work is progressed in close consultation with relevant colleagues outside the Department.
We work to achieve a recognised and respected profile for the Research Department throughout the CWU. This is achieved by doing all that is asked of us to a quality standard, by contributing to all the central issues facing the union, and by providing a clear Departmental identity for all our briefs and papers.
RESOURCES
The main resources of the Department are as follows:
MECHANICS
We have arranged the Research Department that the first visual impression is a friendly and professional one. This includes Impressionist reproductions on the wall of the corridor and a social area in front of the library. We provide a suitable space for visitors to consult Departmental materials and do appropriate work.
At the heart of the Department's physical resources - both geographically and logistically - is the Information Centre consisting of the combined library and the combined archives of the former Ealing and Clapham headquarters. While these resources are available for use by all Executive members and officers, the prime function is to serve the current and planned work needs of the Department's researchers.
As we have done since the creation of the CWU, we have regular meetings of both the six researchers and all members of the Department, so that there is consistent provision of information, everyone is aware of the current work and priorities of the Department, and teamwork is fostered.
All colleagues in the Department are encouraged to gain maximum proficiency with the relevant technology and to develop skills relevant to their responsibilities and, to this end, regular training is offered, normally averaging two days a year for each member of the Department.
RELATIONSHIPS
We exist to serve all the national officers and all National Executive Council members. However, the nature of our work is such that we have a particularly close relationship with the General Secretary and the Communications Department.
Indeed once a month the Head of Research has a strategy meeting with these colleagues to plan future work and initiatives.
BASIC BRIEFS
Since the CWU Research Department was formed, it has built up a portfolio of almost 200 basic briefing documents on a wide range of issues grouped as follows:
A full list of these basic briefs - and a copy of any of them - is available upon request. In fact, many of these basic briefs can be accessed electronically via the CWU Web site.
CONTACT
For further information about the CWU Research Department, contact the Head of Research Roger Darlington as follows:
Communication Workers Union,
150 The Broadway,
London SW19 1RX
Tel: 0044 (0)20 8971 7212
Fax: 0044 (0)20 8971 7343
E-mail : rdarlington@cwu.org
Link: Research Department section of CWU Web site click here
ROGER DARLINGTON
Last modified on 5 January 2001