Guest Post by Andy Magee
Recently via Howie's Corner we have been presented with a number of pieces on 4themembers as a grouping. They have been an interesting read and I have agreed with some points but found some others a bit more difficult to embrace.
Firstly I do not believe that 4TM should come to halt nor is 4TM the whipping boy for other grouping. We are a loose grouping trying to change how our union is ran. For me that's a good starting point for any grouping. I do agree that all of us could do a little more I will cite the 4TM face book site as an example very little is ever put onto it and perhaps we need an open group to let others outside of our group put their comments and members of 4TM can respond, hopefully all in good nature.
At present there are a number of grouping within PCS. LU is dominant in most places. However that does not mean that other groupings should just give up and hope that the dominant group destroyed itself from within. This could happen but I believe that challenges from grouping such as 4TM is more likely to produce results and thus change the union for the better. Lets face it not everyone in other groupings is wrong all of the time. Sometimes we may not agree with them on other occasions we will because its the best result or outcome for the members.
Turning to members, they can be fickle and often don't understand the mechanics of the union. However one thing every rep. knows is that if you take a rep. role to them you are the union and they will place their faith in you. However after whatever the crisis is for them they often slip back into forgetting about the union. We do need to rouse them from their slumber and increase our voting share. But in my opinion we can only do that from within a grouping that is prepared to back individuals within the grouping who are prepared to "stick their neck out." High or low turn outs and a concern but if each of us is prepared to help hopefully we can increase our share of those who vote.
We have 4 NEC members certainly no where near as many as we need, but its a start. We could get wiped out again at the next election but it doesn't mean we should just given up. Our positions on issues may change as issues rumble on but we must always stick to the belief that we can do it another way. Talk is cheap division is dist ruction.
Howie does some magnificent work often not getting his reward for it. We might not always agree with some of the issues but we can't say we are not informed.
However the questions to me really are;
1) Do each of us do enough to push 4TM?
Firstly I do not believe that 4TM should come to halt nor is 4TM the whipping boy for other grouping. We are a loose grouping trying to change how our union is ran. For me that's a good starting point for any grouping. I do agree that all of us could do a little more I will cite the 4TM face book site as an example very little is ever put onto it and perhaps we need an open group to let others outside of our group put their comments and members of 4TM can respond, hopefully all in good nature.
At present there are a number of grouping within PCS. LU is dominant in most places. However that does not mean that other groupings should just give up and hope that the dominant group destroyed itself from within. This could happen but I believe that challenges from grouping such as 4TM is more likely to produce results and thus change the union for the better. Lets face it not everyone in other groupings is wrong all of the time. Sometimes we may not agree with them on other occasions we will because its the best result or outcome for the members.
Turning to members, they can be fickle and often don't understand the mechanics of the union. However one thing every rep. knows is that if you take a rep. role to them you are the union and they will place their faith in you. However after whatever the crisis is for them they often slip back into forgetting about the union. We do need to rouse them from their slumber and increase our voting share. But in my opinion we can only do that from within a grouping that is prepared to back individuals within the grouping who are prepared to "stick their neck out." High or low turn outs and a concern but if each of us is prepared to help hopefully we can increase our share of those who vote.
We have 4 NEC members certainly no where near as many as we need, but its a start. We could get wiped out again at the next election but it doesn't mean we should just given up. Our positions on issues may change as issues rumble on but we must always stick to the belief that we can do it another way. Talk is cheap division is dist ruction.
Howie does some magnificent work often not getting his reward for it. We might not always agree with some of the issues but we can't say we are not informed.
However the questions to me really are;
1) Do each of us do enough to push 4TM?
2) Can we support each other a little more and open other lines of communication?
3) What can I do to revive the union?
As I said at the beginning the contributions so far have for me had good and bad points. We have a vehicle to try and move forward so lets use it.
Andy Magee is a member of the PCS National Executive Committee and writes in a personal capacity.
As I said at the beginning the contributions so far have for me had good and bad points. We have a vehicle to try and move forward so lets use it.
Andy Magee is a member of the PCS National Executive Committee and writes in a personal capacity.
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