2nd March 2010, 10:35 AM
The fact that Unite has members in archaeology will not make recognition harder. Many industries have historically had multi union membership and recognition agreements that reflect that. There is no need for anyone who is a member of Prospect to change their union if they move to a unit that has a majority of Unite members or vise versa. I am cuirrently a Unite staff rep. and would have no problem representing a member of Prospect or any other union should such an individual be employed by us. The urgent need as I see it is for all of us who want to see a unionised workforce is to work together to bring this about and to develop the structures that enable members to come together and find the most effective ways of addressing the issues that face us as workers in archaeology. Currently my guess would be that there are fare more archaeologists out there that our unions have not reached than there are those who are already members and that has to be our principle concern. As a member of Unite it would not cause me any problems if Prospect were to organise currently non union workers quicker than we do. THe point is that an increase in union membership will benefit all in the industry and the sooner it happens the better! As members we have to ensure that our unions work together for the benefit of all for if we don't hang together then there is nothing so certain than that we will all end up hanging seperately!!!