4 10 310 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/020d4a4959c19f76aa700b90916e4b59.pdf c28eb73fd0b96c4613071ae924d2cd21 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Asbestos Kills ! Subject The topic of the resource 2pp advice not to specify any material containing asbestos Description An account of the resource DON'T specify ANY building material containing ANY kind of ASBESTOS! More and more architects are refusing to specify building materials con- taining any type of asbestos, despite a massive, slick and deceptive pub- lic relations campaign being waged by the asbestos companies and their propaganda arms, the "Asbestos Information Committee" and the "Asbestosis Research Council." Remember these FIVE POINTS: 1. Evan slight exposure to asbestos dust can cause slow and painful death not only from asbestosis (an untreatable form of pneumoconiosis), but also from lung cancer, mesothelioma and other cancers. Mesothelioma, of which asbestos is the only established cause, is "a painful, untreat- able cancer (of the membrane lining of the chest or abdomen) which kills by slow suffocation." It can be produced even by the slight exposures to which members of the general public are subject and usually does not develop until at least fifteen years after such exposure. 2. All forms of asbestos, including chrysotile (mined principally in Can- ada, Rhodesia, South Africa and the U.S.S.R.) and amosite (imported from South Africa and used for most thermal and acoustic insulation products containing asbestos), are highly dangerous andcan be lethal, not merely the "blue asbestos" (crocidolite) which is no longer widely used in Britain in new construction. 3. 4. 5. The only safe level of exposure to asbestos dust is zero. Current safety standards in British industry, even were they enforced, do not make the hazards negligible and, of course, do not cover the wor- kers in the largely British-owned mines and processing plants in the countries from which asbestos is imported. Asbestos is a hazard not only to the people who work with it in mines and factories and on construction and demolition sites but also to the people they come in contact with and to the communities in which they live and work. Due to weathering, abrasion, maintenance, repairs and alterations, the people using buildings containing asbestos are also subject to the danger. Asbestos cement flat and profiled sheets, tubes and pipes account for most of the asbestos used in the construction industry, but it is also used in a wide range of insulation and fire-resistant products, vinyl asbestos flooring tiles, asbestos-asphalt roofing compounds, many sarking felts, et.al. For all asbestos products used in construction there are safe alter- asbestos kills! natives. (though glass or mineral fibres are probably not among them). Many cost no more. For others, the difference is insignificant compared to the medical and human costs involved in the continued use of asbestos. Don't put your faith in inadequate "standards" dependent upon unfeasible measuring techniques and understaffed and ambivalent enforcement agencies. Don't wait for your firm or department (or your client) to ban the use of all materials containing any kind of asbestos, or for the workers on site to refuse to handle them. Take the initiative! Don't specify any product containing asbestos and don't allow any on site. Get your colleaques, quantity surveyor and engineering consultants to do likewise. Strong pressure now from architects and other specifiers, along with the pressure already being exerted by organised workers in factories and on building and demolition sites, can help force the merchants of death out of the asbestos business. And don't worry about their "crocidolite" tears... eeethe big asbestos companies are already diversifying into other products and may well want to "cut their losses" before a boycott of asbestos is obliged to spread to their other lines. To prevent potential unemployment in the asbestos industry, the trade union movement must force the companies involved to provide alternative, safe employment rather than continue to subject their workers and the community at large to a lethal hazard. Don't depend on the asbestos companies and their propaganda fronts for in- formation. Refer instead to: Nancy Tait, Asbestos Kills, The Silbury Fund, 1976. (Available for 25p from Exchange Publications, 9 Poland Street, London W1V 3DG.) Paul Brodeur, Expendable Americans, The Viking Press, 1974. British Society for Social Responsibility in Science, "The Prevention of Asbestos Diseases" (submission to the Government's Advisory Committee on Asbestos), September 1976. Pat Kinnersly's The Hazards of Work (Pluto Press, 1973) covers asbestos among many other hazards of work. On the British asbestos industry, refer to The Monopolies Commission report, "Asbestos and certain Asbestos Products," HMSO, 1973. Note also: 1. Cape Industries continues to mine "blue asbestos" (crocidolite) in South Africa and has, indeed, been increasing production. More and more of this deadly production is apparently exported to Third World countries where the trade union movement has not the power to get it banned. 2. The main sources of chrysotile asbestos, which accounts for 95% of world asbestos fibre production, are Canada, South Africa, Rhodesia and the U.S.S.R. Britain imports it from Canada and South Africa. It must be re- membered, though, that Rhodesian exports, since the white racist regime's takeover there, have been known to reach Western markets under the quise of South African exports. For additional copies of this leaflet, send a stamped addressed envelope to the New Architecture Movement, 143 whitfield Street, London W1. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/4eb6f174d752a74a8769996959e8262b.pdf 46b90b02fb7211359eb211a757173ea1 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Draft TASS-BDS leaflet Subject The topic of the resource Draft work for BDS-TASS Leaflet (8 pp.) Description An account of the resource SSL oe Serumsee Ze Manmeat braitTASS=bvbSleatlet,sarki Goa,6ne (front "cover" text) 5 | Builaing ; vesign Statis eO7 ’ (space tor-Heliman cay 20, Wraps B-way around cover; text on "newsfaper"TM to read; “staits propose uesign tnion.") y ZI are organising within TASS, the union tor all the ui lding Professions. , (back "cover" text; in leit halt o1 1/5 page) If you ure a bprolessiciiai, techuicel, auiinistrative clerical enployee it (vertical list) ARCHITECTURE , or UsNiEeY SULVEYING, Strocttrk uNGINLENING, BUILDING Deh bry 7SethiheSUVHYING,Lanuscape sbenitecture,-Towr Plunoing, imterier Design... anu want to begin to gain control over join TsSS and buila a Strong, active, unisiec staii organisuiion NopaAx ln your oLiice and among your 9U,UUU colieavues in “private Gepartrenrts . AXHSINEAtEXK (folded 1/5 page to have recruiting info; adoress, nenber- ship form, and advert/order form to Main for working for what? © 40p) { f list, NW. (inside text) (in "box") what is T3sS? bpsuv 165,000 professional, technical, clerical workers are meubers ot Tass, Section oi the l-million member maintains conplete industrial three sections of the AU construction sites. (main text) Sulariew stuii in erchitecture, : Cugineering, Surveying : your working life, aenocratic and sector" DEES 6He- : KD adninistrative anu’ the "white coliar" AUK, in which TASS autonomy. One ot the other (ote. represents 05,UL0 workers on "back"~ q —- and phoning... like ecuployees in 1 by other protessional Breups who are alreagay orpanised in honu-’ide trade unICHS... le BOLDFACE (in "box") What is "BuiluvSo"? Builaing vesign the union" set from throughout on May 14, 1977 Olgaiiise. They options (astiS, Stafis Urgenisation is a “union within recora 4s an eftiective union engineering TASS can offer. expertise anu efficiency but also by its denecratic social coucerns. up at tie request britain who met at a special to Gecide on GN® union within of TASS's staifs in of the Support chose Tass atter EMA, STAMP, ConSicering TGWU) because auong Gesign ana quality plus the st.ength ‘hey were impressed uot only by the committment or the union's of TASS oitficials of building design statis conference which to tour other research and structure and wide-ranging and the legal departments, public sector stafi unions which represent them. Management in the private sector 3s alreauy well oOrganiseu. it's now time for staii to join together and make an end to the days of §01nug cap-in-hand to the boss, alone and without a Strong organisation to Support them. A bona-tide, TUC-aftiiiated trade union is the recoguiseu, orderly and established way, protectéa by legislation, for employees to collectively negotiate with their enployers. Already, a new London ouiiaginy Design Stafis erancl oi 4a55 has been esiablispeu ana is rapidly prowing. 1 atsice Tonuon, stati join the beucral TASS braneli in their bi DAG Ne TASS is the only hbona-fide, effective trade union in which building ueSign staiis in the private sector are actively organising. Building Design Statts Orgatisation in TASS is the one union tor all people ernployed in private sector offices in architecture, surveying, engineering, and planning... whether in Consultancies, industry ana conrerce, or the voluntary sector. It hus the rull backing ol TASS's electeu national executive anu OL its highly-e1iective full-time ofticials anu back up stuit. “Ss more and tiore join TASS, siniler BLS branches will he couiirn oraer Guu eeeLome short text Lor each item Lisgnting Yeuwiuaucies. 14565 sees tial all set up’ in other areas. a 1 employed in building design. (end of “box") ypQty, Literg \ union orgdénisa— Join TAsS Lov tion. veciue loge ther with tne key eiiective, aenwocratic trade your issues in your Oltiice are; .pay &@nd conaitions: career Structures? + Undermanning? «+-Wonen's rights? to get “open books, clear chennels reper nlnLSC Caps)o Mos nS Ovuer A taice rt2niOCh1’Con.ittees Uevery Ww Wh alternatives are explored before auy men— practice. mM c LASS. TASS has !roCh /} OL the opportunity to do each job responsibly. 4 1s 4 viVE wil ( stiveu of TASS members women in Li: durcéiront of the Ch 4L> WO» Ci. Cas. dis eucition colitact by a "national advisory comiittee ofiice colieagues, in unavoicuble, TASS insures that they are ee eFCUGudauC1eS? ‘aSS has a louie recoru o1 Successtully earbitiary ana petty conditions? BUS-TASS niewhbers are kept in consultation with stait iro: other ofiices, aud with the --hanggenent secrecy? Join together with your colleagues o &£ OL CoOWiwunicetion anu @ begining tor the canpeign for equal pay, concitions, anu eCuucetionul anu enployment opportu- nities Lor women. In aduition to enjoying the same rights anu benetits as every level of the uudiou, are repicsertea girectly expert auvice anu Support that only 1sSS can give what [erent Outl £ ber is tid#ue reuduant. If reuuLuencies are agreeu, aiter iull Cousultations, to be 1airly tiauuleu aud usually manages to Win substahtial payments tor its menbers. TASS also pays its own Supplementary long-term unenploynent benefit. detocratic control of protessional Cane: ployment, overtine, etc.) e--Shouuy Ge€Sign auu cutting o1 corners? Fight with TASS tor There are already over 20,00 (in “"box") who controls TASS? TASS nerbers in each ofiice deciae to pursue anu Union officiais the means they are callea in only at thear ‘ request. % LinolOt (end "box") the policy they wish to use to achieve it. nx hannw tf stil wish ---elack of training facilities? i a Notions. \onen's Cfganiser. e- GeClining workloau?( political muscle, TASS record) +--lack O41 Contact with building users? (accountebility) o The orgunisution of employees in TASS in each office is the key unit in the union's structure and the means whereby Staff can aenocratically ana coltectively have a reel voice in ali the Gecisions which affect their work. This can include not only questions otf Wages, hours, holidays, Pensicns anu reuisuaicies, but also broaaer issues like the type anu quality oi work producead, px4*xXEX or office orgaénisetion anu cecision-i.aking structures. Broader TASS policy is determinea by the members through he union “renches, the enouel Co.ference, una elected regional anu national executives. administration of the zj- ;ie> union is by experienced, iuli-tine officials and backup staif. .'| TTS 2?of NW See Asx 5 tdface {) ASS/BSSU, Prgedsol een SukneyKayQuipZo Gs w Ow Se ent AbD Rene oe AGC, Way aTrade Union for Building “4 Vines : a E #) ae Design staff ? %y ee eet Over 90:3 ofthe building-design workforce SA RIS Set ASank Soy is Salaried.The promise of the__ ie: ;Qeeiimne tel juniorarchitectorotherprofessional,peSea“OPEwGiQo The economic crisis has shown how powerless private sector building design staff are to resist exploitation and redundancy. And this is only symptomatic of a Situation woich pervades all aspects of our work, whatever the econamic situation, Building design staff are at the mercy or 'market forces! in the private Sector and ape—unableto-secuerven Amott the most basic guarantees of pay and conditions,. which are now in steady i mapotyg i,Aeaniltong,, VA ( Architecture is a business. Tne owners (ar “yartners") of the business are well organised with their own advisory bodies; the staff are not. Building design staff s are therefore managed bysani-putsted, Ang, OG as0s 2 wr HAR ésSf expendec—at—thitet of thétr employers, ‘ Simply because of their neglect to organise themselves effectively so as to conduct relations with their employers on a rational, collective basis. On May 14 1977 a special one-day conference toolc place in London at which building design staff from throughout Britain one union building design staff should organise within. Phe conference chose TASS (Technical administrative and Supervisory Section ena toe building Design Stati Section was set un, This Special section is intendea f@ all workers met to decide which — AUE/ ) ae ye Orrell Ss gee bwAemoc) L decline. eke 2: worker rising to partnership and Nec having control over his or her ow work is illusory for the vast majority Coste : oe OC Ge WIPES Qu ane AO w Asne MW, & f- in building design who now reala&e that, m Lome Ccs we nk Eo an comion with other groups such as - Jie peCeres iio lawyers,teachersanddoctors,their OR)asBoyDWcee role and conditions of work will Poets. 7 Y Po, ROU on. continuetobedictatedbytheiremployers.LY jGf TALON) fPrace Union organisasion esdsts for this purpose, recognised and established by statutory legislation (the Bmoloyment Fretectim Act 1976) as the one appropriate basis for negotiations between employers and their starf. A Trade e Unionistherecognisedway—betieine-desimAKto oSa etais can ignore it no longer. Guth olsen, 02 prin eral es QOyt eoOe unkSen— Waat is the Guilding Desim Staff Section- TASS? Cc in the private sector building design \ professions;erchitetes,surveyors,—— an Ww CaAey(NAN 7 Vile ives step p SAO) pystiee* or, eet ae Craryloytra +LO0 4 Hy SQM, iS)LOck 06 to carry out full and thorough resaer vital issues > Saerch into € Luge CoesSLAar v 4-€ technicians, 2. structural engineers, planners secretaries,typists,etc.,whatevertheir Capo|Aopeas statusandqualifications.Ttisnota'craft'0,0ooiesank,tho, oifice as its membersA kt i 2 bayeceteneyAlon ide There are already pressing? sroblems of union and intends to have all staff in the = fosaso. A, CH rUlabin. pay and conditions, redundancy eles, Ho ADA, SOQ chek, whichbuildingdesignstaffcanonly Qeree oe unThe tackle effectivley if taey are organised, withexpertunion'back-up!'.jhenyou aeUma join BDSS you must dartte discuss and decide what policies yau wnat to put forward in your office. Yon will have'official'Union assistance where there is a majority union membership in the office and where the members representatives ask for union nelp. then expert full-time Union officials can help secure recogniti on of the union by Po G your employer and help you in negotiations or in taking cases to the industrial Tziounal, Phe Enplayment Protection Act requires that employers recognise a Trade Union where it has a Hajority membership in an office, and requires employers to divulge information which is seldom available to individuals, In this way it will be possible for members to make informed decisions on further pecker h AeHiner Ou oo LetoNaes Concern gon.Jedats see How can BIS help you ? bsteh you 4 Qa BDSS is especially well equipped to help building design staff because:— DSS already has recognition in many engineering consultanties and therefore ‘3 to2\ p Areal & understand? the problems in building design oifices, 25S can therefore srovide expert professional advice am the law as it affects your enployyaent and can give hely in enforcing taat lew. Oonrias bo BDSS wsaT recrait 211 staff in the office thus” preventing division end ensuring the mOSt eriective collective action, In_SDSyouwillhavetheOpportunitytomeet and discuss probless with staff froma other offices, and to decide on common policies, BD55 has full use of the ig; rescarca department a 20 Geron.0r vitaljiss ee sy¢h 5 worltloadyand Bee ooffenerstEovers boda sudan “~s OMIT. on Yoel%prpowaatAceontabat Toere are many wider issues acing 7 architecturetodayandBDSSwillprovide MadreWweee a farum at national level far all OG 1.0 aye buildingdesignstafftomeetanddiscuss Tees cammonproblems(thereareplansto rw Sconse coprdinate with building design staff in publicsedtorunions)andtotake CY collective action. If you would like to know more abaut te specs). BDSS- TASS please camtact the address belay. We can arrange f discuss the advantages «Caleyunpine os . J a speaker to of BDSS membership Oeee ee or to give advice am your affice Situation, Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/57ae52623e3e394249a1bd156d4aae04.pdf 54c61a8d69dab64fb9f97469b79a2ae7 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Inauguration of BDS London Subject The topic of the resource Letter to John Allan re meeting to take place on 31st May 1977 Description An account of the resource x =x REELo AmalgamatedUnionofEngineeringWorkers (TECHNICAL ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUPERVISORY SECTION) K GILL, General Secretary to whom all communications should be addressed REGISTERED OFFICE ONSLOW HALL LITTLE GREEN RICHMOND SURREY Telephone 01-948 2271 Telegrams Draftineer Richmond Surroy Circular No. 143/1977 25th May 1977 ; John Allan Dear Colleague, Re: Inaugration of Building Design Staff Branch (London) As agreed the above mentioned meeting will take place at the New Ambassadors Hotel, Upper Woburn Place, London WeC.le at 6.30 pem. on Tuesday, 31st May 1977. It is hoped that Bob Mansfield (President) and Roger Henshaw (Divisional Organiser) will be present. I will arrive at 6.00 p.m. so that we can discuss the final arrangements for the meeting. Yours sincerely, HARRY SMITH NATIONAL ORGANISER Qetoone_d es) AI QOD GAM, TS/lLim Boker ck. NAM ysewromak May 147 .70 kcal: 4. Srarcm aA SR op6MMCanefiall Niivk wat AQuonLQ, @O ReLQroh =REE Cu, Pe SToORnCusrc2Qbn Arolne Hiedak , Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Harry Smith Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 25..5.77 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/2d10265b4f3796b93f5e09b658527076.pdf ec7c87c56f65afc983a2fdb1c670df1d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Architects building movement Subject The topic of the resource Report on NAM and Unionisation conference 1p in Science for People No 36 Description An account of the resource SPECIAL ONE-DAY CONFERENCE ON TRADE UNION ORGANISATION IN ARCHITECTURE & ALLIED BUILDING PROFESSIONS Held at St. Pancras Church Hall, Lancing St., London NW1 May 14 1977 REPORT The conference was attended by 61 participants holding full voting credentials. Of these 40 were employees in the private sector building professions(1l were women) The morning session was given over to debating which one union building design employees should organise within and culminated in the following resolutions:- Resolution 1 This conference urges all people employed in private sector offices in the building professions where no union is recognised to organise within AUEW-TASS and pledges its support to such an organising drive within AUEW-TASS Resolution 2 This Conference reqests the (Unionisation) Organising Committee, if it is willing, to make whatever arrangements are necessary with the union chosen by this conference in order to launch an organising drive among employees in the private sector of the building professions, to issue press statements in the name of this conference, and in general to carry out the will of this conference until such time as the appropriate trade union structures are fully established. The conference is to elect from the floor five additional members to the Committee. The Committee shall have the power to co-opt members. Resolution 3 The Committee is to convene a conference within six months to discuss progress in unionisation in London & nationally. This conference is to involve workers in the private and public sectors to discuss pay, conditions and the state of the building industry. Six members wre nominated for the Committee, from the floor and these were all accepted onto the Committee with- out a vote. This Committee is now known as the 'May 14 Unionisation Committee' Gont/eee Contt/s1-1- The address to contact is:- The Secretary 4 Highshore Road Peckham London SE15 5AA Before lunch the vote was taken and counted. The decision was overwhelmingly for AUEW-TASS The afternoon was devoted to wide ranging informal debate on the various issues on which the organising drive should focus, including pay and conditions, workloads, contracts of employment, and the disparity in earnings between public and private sector employees. There was also considerable feeling that a union of Arch- itectural workers should go beyond the bread and butter issues, important as they are, and tackle wider environ- mental concerns, professional accountability, resisting anti-social developments etc. Policies on such matters would no doubt be formulated both by the NAC and of course by fraternal NAM groups. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unionisation Committee Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/8da2b76ecb64388a591ce0649706e944.pdf 437ff12b6e27186ec39255a3714df58d Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource WORKING FOR WHAT? Subject The topic of the resource The case for Trade Union Organisation with Hellman cartoons Description An account of the resource | THE CASE FOR TRADE UNION ORGANISATION IN ARCHITECTURE AND THE ALLIED BUILDING PROFESSIONS WORKING FOR WHAT? i= Yn a NAM report 60 pence WORKING FOR WHAT? The Case for Trade Union Organisation in Architect- ure and the Allied Building Professions a NAM Report by the (Unionisation) Organising Committee of The New Architecture Movement Cartoons by Louis Hellman PREFACE This report grew out of the work of the “Unionisation Work- ing Group” of the Central London Group of the New Arch- itecture Movement,whichpresentedadraftreportonthe subject of trade unionism in architecture to NAM’s Second Congress, held in Blackpool, November 26-28, 1976, The draft report was enthusiastically received by the Congress, which set up an enlarged, national Organising Committee to develop realistic proposals for the organisation of the nearly 50,000 people prceetc in the almost totally uni ised private sector of the building professions and to co-ordinate and strengthen trade unionism among architectural workers in both sectors. The present report, then, is based on nearly a year of intense discussion among architectural workers and with trade union officials and activists, as well as upon study of the relevant literature. It’s purpose is to bring into focus and stimulate discussion upan a subject which requires urgent attention by all workers involved in the design of the built environment. As the experience of the authors is principally in architecture, this report concentrates on that field. We are confident, how- ever, that the present situation in the other building profes- sions (quantity surveying, structural and building services engineering, landscape architecture, surveying, town planning) is roughly comparable to that in architecture and that the proposals outlined in this report may, therefore, besimilarly relevant. The Organising Committee, in any case, welcomes comments and criticisms from people working in any of the building professions as well as from “lay people,” who, like ourselves, must live and work in the buildings we help produce. WHY ORGANISE ? Why are steadily increasing numbers of architectural employ- ces now seriously interested in trade union organising where they work? The present economic crisis in architecture, not to mention the more profound crisis of both confidence and identity within the profession and growing pressure for job satisfaction and “industrial democracy,” is merely bringing into focus a situation which people working in architecture share with professional, technical, scientific, creative and clerical workers of similar status and responsibility in other industries who have already begun organising. By now most teachers up through university and polytechnic level and journalists in the press and broadcasting are members of TUC.affiliated unions, as are some 5,000 doctors. Organisation is steadily growing among professional engineers and even Church of England vicars are organising now. The past year has also scen young lawyers beginning to organise within the Transport and General Workers Union (TGWU). Staff at the headquarters architectural management’s of Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA) are apparently already well along the path of unionisation. (Even soldiers — at least on the Continent and in the USA — now have their unions! Throughout al sectors of industry, the remarkable growth in “white collar” organisation, not to mention militancy, during the present periodof accelerated inflation and incomes policies, has been partly a result of the desire to win back salary and status differentials eroded by better organised manual workers, But it stems also from a growing realisation that only by collective action with the backing of a bona-fide trade union can the no-longer-so-benevolent paternalism which characterizes industrial relations in “the professions” be replaced with more democratic control over al aspects of working life. Architecture Today What is the situation in architecture? In the past, we are told, a young architect could reasonably look forward to the day when he would gain control over his work, win the respect of the community, achieve a level of economic well-being and fulfil his professional obligations by “becoming his own boss.” The “professional myth” perpetuated by the RIBA and the schools of architecture, with help from the media, would have us believe that the profession is still (if it ever was) a community of equals or near-cquals, with a partner- ship the eventual outcome of the typical architectural career. The profession is in fact made up of near equals as far as ability to do the work of architecture is concerned, which helps to keep the myth alive. The crucial reality, however, is that 90% of the architectural workforce (and even 80% of “‘architects’’) is already salaried. These figures increase steadily. The likelihood of somcone now beginning a career in architecture ever becoming a part- ner correspondingly declines and is hardly improved by the even more remote possibility of becoming a principal in the public sector, which has by and large modelled its hierarchical structure and bureaucratic methods on those of private practice. On the other hand, more and more architectural employees can only look forward to a continuing life of drawing board drudgery, insecurity and alienation. The Business of Architecture The fact that is dawning on architectural staff with ever- increasing clarity and force is that architecture is, first and foremost, abusiness. The cornerstone of architectural practice is, thus, a division of the people involved into a small minor- ity of architectural businessmen and bureaucrats, the manage- ment (“partner,” “chief architect,” etc.), on the one hand, and architectural workers, be they architects, architectural assistants, technicians, draughtsmen, secretaries, etc. on the other hand. We are concerned here with the people who by and large do the work of architecture — designing, drawing, specifying materials, supervising work on site — and those who provide them with essential clerical and administrative support. These are the “architectural workers.” SORRY OLD MAN, BUT THE S@UEEZE HAS HIT US ALL... /VE JUST HAD TO GIVE UP My THIRO ~ HOME For INSTANCE / two-thirds of the profession, is already down by about a third from its level at the end of 1974. In the better-organiscd public sector, the redundancies have only just begun. Tic official unemployment rate among all “architects” is estim- ated to be well over 10%, and it is predicted in some quarters that it will rise to 2 this year. The architectural worker already on the dole queue is reduced to waiting for the next building boom, though the fear is gaining ground that this may be a long way off if it ever does materialise. While the Partner may be deciding that investing in a third home just is not on this year, those employees still at the drawing board can only hope that the next round of redundancies will pass them by and are forced to look on helplessly while a growing number of employers unilaterally alter their contracts of employment to, for example, increase hours or discontinue payment for overtime work. Meanwhile, architectural work ers have seen their real income steadily declining during the past few years. This has been particularly marked in private practice, where trade union organisation is virtually non- existent. Alienation of the Drawing Board A deeper and broader dissatisfaction with the situation in architecture runs equally through both private and public practice. Taught to consider himself (or herself) technically competent, socially concerned, and professionally independ: ent, the architectural worker is forced to work within a sys- tem that gives him, just as the workers in other industries, no control over his working life. Ilis technical, creative and social concerns and capabilities are continually frustrated by the unaccountable power exercised, often quite arbitrarily, by the same people who are making his economic position increasingly untenable: the architectural businessmen who are more in sympathy with the directors, speculators and mandarins who deal out the commissions than with the workers in their offices or the people who must live and work in the buildings for which they are so quick to take eredit should the critics applaud. Each architectural worker is separated from his colleagues in the office by excessive division of labour, claborate status groupings and an individual competitivencss which owes more to the present harsh realities of employeremploy- ce relationships than it does to any creative pretensions. At the same time he is often denied the contact with the client, not to mention the people who will actually use the buildings he designs, without which itisimpossible for him properly to carry out his responsibilities. Contact with the building labourers and craftsmen who must use the drawings and specification he produces in order to build “his” building is hardly more frequent or profound. Sect in this context, the architectural worker's ultimate alienation from the product itself is inevitable. Additional copies of this report are available for 6 postpaid, from The New Architecture Marerant 5Rat Street, London W 1. Bulk orders of over 10 copies are available at 50p per copy, postpaid. The current economic crisis, which has resulted in large-scale redundancies throughout the entire building indusiry, has begun to clarify for many architectural workers i situation which persists through boom as well as bust. Architectural employment in the private sector, which comprises nearly Copyright 1977 (Unionisation) Organising C New p:rctitectine eorement We will sit happily et people we like reproduce anythin, mustfirstaskourperalanioeedSee aan Printed by Women in Print, 16a Iliffe Yard, London SE 17. While the “myth of the professional” has been wearing thin on the architectural worker, the so-called “crisis in architect- ure,” has been brought closer to the ignition point by the unprecedented collapse of public confidence in the architect- ural profession. This has quite understandingly followed from the Ronan Point, Centre Point, Summerland and Poulson scandals set against a backdrop of the profession's full-scale collaboration in the destruction of countless neighbourhoods and towns, whose only crime was to be out of step with the “demands of the market”, and their replacement with the shabby yet expensive wasteland of arbitrary and oppressive “estates” and “blocks,” motorways and parking garages, shopping centres, civic centres and cultural centres which signify “modern architecture” for the man in what used to be the street. It is becoming increasingly obvious both to architectural workers and to the public that architecture as it is now practised serves only the interests of the few and remains inaccessible and unaccountable to the community, despite all the committees, enquiries and reports, codes of conduct, pilot projects and pious sentiments about participation and public sery Communities want control over their environ- ment and architectural workers are begining to realise the need for control over their working lives, for a chance both to survive economically and to produce the technically, creatively and socially responsible architecture of which they are capable. But how has the architectural worker come to find himself in this situation of exploitation, isolation and alienation? The drive, which no enterprise in the market economy can avoid, towards an ever-increasing profit element and steadily declin- ing labour element has resulted in architecture, in larger and more hierarchical practices. Increasingly bureaucratic and arbitrary, remote and unaccountable, they are unable to utilise fully the human skills and material resources made available to them. To ensure higher profits, including the means to pay higher interest and insurance charges, the owners of practices have had to cut their labour costs by reducing manning, cutting salaries (both as a proportion of production cost and in real-income terms) and reducing the time and resources which can be allocated not only to cach project but also to “back-up” likeon-the-job training, continuing education, research and other “labour costs,"’ be they pensions, other payments, or social provisions. Of course, this cost cutting is not only against the interests of architectural workers. By preventing those who must do the work of architecture from doing a competent and responsible job, this cutting of “labour costs’ is against the public interest as well. The collapse of public confidence in the profession is no coincidence. Despite the occasional feudal remnants with which those in the profession are all too familiar, it is obvious then, that architecture has entered the age of capitalism, “unacceptable face” and al. What then, is the response of the architectural worker? It is in this context that we consider the question of trade unionism in architecture. AREAS FOR UNION ACTION Architectural workers are slowly and painfully becoming aware that their cmployment security, their standard of liy- ing, and the What? How? and Why? of the work they do, not to mention the quality of the environment which they share as members of the community, are as much at the mercy of the market system as those of any other working people. Not surprisingly then, they begin to look to trade unionism, not as a panacea, but as a way of beginning to come to grips with these problems, collectively, with the people with whom they work. Workers that were “proletarianised” long before have for over a century seen the answer in solidarity The trade union movement is the principal institutional form which that solidarity has taken. Through their unions, working people have defended their standard of living and right to work in the face of management's quest for more profit and power. At the same time, they have begun organising to replace the market system with more democratic control over all aspects of their working lives, so that the human, natural and cult- ural resources of the nation may be used, rationally, for the benefit of al, What could trade union organisation accomp- lish for people working in architecure? The Priorities THEYRE WORKING OUT NEXT Year’ PARTNG@S SUITE (KOE? ovr 8. andatanappropriaterate. d. A minimum of one month's paid vacation for all architectural workers. ¢. One unitied and adequate pension plan covering all architectural employment. f. Full implementation of equal pay and job opportun- ities for women and adequate paid maternity and paternity leave. g. Safe and healthy working conditions, including seat- ing, lighting and fire precautions, Sufficient time off with pay for attendance at relevant courses, conferences and meetings, as well as for trade union activities. XN 7 orrice StRuctuRE 7 EAR If overtime work is unavoidable, it should be paid, Beyond Bargaining: The Road to Progress in eH eCHEe 3 os Unionisation does not just mean collective bargaining. Those familiar with trade unions know how, in addition, they defend employees against discrimination, unfair dismissal or victimisation, either by legal representation at tribunalosr by more direct “shop floor” action. And while collective bargaining agreements are clearly the primary method where- by architectural employees could begin to take control of their own destinies, they could also act positively and effect- ively in other ways, in the office, the profession, the building industry and the community. For example: Beyond Bread-and-Butter Today, the situation in architecture makes it necessary for organised workers to go beyond these vital bread-and-butter issues. Through their union representatives they could demand, for example: 1. An end to “production line’ ig 7 2. 8. 4. 5. arbitrary division of labour and excessive separation of hi 1workers into “professionals” “technicians,” and “students.” The opportunity to do each job responsibly: no speed- ups and no cutting of corners. Adherence to a “code of conduct,” developed through the union which would prevent architectural workers from having to collaborate in the destruction of our natural and architectural heritance, the breaking up of coherent neighbourhoods, and the diversion of valuable material and human resources from socially-useful pro- jects to speculative, monumental, prestige, authoritarian and colonial ones. An end to secretive management and arbitrary decisions over the lives of architectural workers as well as over the lanning, design, construction and management of the Buite environment. Architectural workers need not mere- ly “open books,” but complete, democratic control over every aspect of architectural practice. Employers to contribute, per employee, to a fund which: architectural workers would administer through their union and which would establish small, democratically- organised locally-based “community design offices’ to provide an architectural service accessible to and accountable to popular-based community action groups, tenants associations, trades councils, etc. The union, in collaboration with the “‘client,”’ would staff cach office with architectural workers on “leave of absence.”’ Firms could be given the option of converting to small, non- profit, self-managed practices under a suitable frame- work ensuring accountability to the community and co- ordination with other such community design offices. Either way, construction from the grass roots up, of a democratically-organised and locally-controlled design service could begin. press demands for the right to produce well-designed, 1. If workers in architecture and the allied building profes- sions were well-organised, they, together with other organised workers in the building industry, could exert the political influence that is necessary to stop the cuts in socially-necessary building expenditure and invest- ment. The use of the building industry by successive g as a handy “ ic reg ” (howev ineffective) is partly a reflection of the comparative ik of trade union o} isation in the industry. Its disastrous effects, even in boom times when a reckless scramble for profits stretches inadequate human and material resources, are well known. But beyond merely fighting for reasonable employment prospects; architectaral workers,if organised, would be in a position to campaign for an end to the use of the building industry by the market system to ensure profit and power for bankers and speculators instead of decent housing, industrial, social and cultural facilities for the community. They could demand that the whole range of human, material and financial resources available to the construction sector be used for the good ofthe com- munity and not for the luxury of the few or to maintain clitist, oppressive and wasteful institutions at home or fascist and racist regimes abroad. Only if they are well-organised will architectural em- ployees be able to develop, articulate, and poreceny well-built, socially-useful, environmentally-sound and di ically-pl 9 buildi At Lucas Aerospace, a Shop Stewards Combine Committee representing all 14,000 blue-collar and white-collar employees in several unions at the 17 U.K. Lucas sites has begun to demon- strate that demands of this nature can be made “‘on the shop floor’ as well as in the broader political arena. After widespread discussions among the entire Lucas workforce, they have drawn up an alternate “corporate plan” to fight threatened redundancies by converting to the production of socially-desirable goods which make use of existing expertise and equipment and for which a need and a market has been demonstrated. Many of these incorporate “alternative technologies". An integr- ated energy system for housing, for example, incorpor- ates solar panels, windpower devices and pumping and switching equipment all based on past Lucas work (; The crucial first step is to organise and fight together to ach- teve recognition of their union as their representative and institute collective bargaining where they work as the means of resolving all significant issues of employer-employee relations. Depending on their priorities, architectural work- ers might then demand, for example: 1. An end to unnecessary redundancies. To keep going in time of crisis, excess profits and so-called “management expenses” should be trimmed, not jobs. Work sharing and early retirement should be fully utilised. Where redundancies are agreed in advance to be unavoidable they should be handled less arbitrarily and inequitably than at present. The Who? When? and How? must be negotiated in detail, and those made redundant given maximum notice, redundancy pay, and supplementary unemployment benefit, all in excess of the present inadequate legal minimums. n ° s Collective negotiation of salaries, hours, and all other conditions of employment, to ensure for al architectural Mone a reasonable standard of living. This would a. Stopping the decline in real wages and insuring that salary levels allow architectural workers to maintain their standard of living. .Reducing Pay differentials, where excessive and divisive, particularly by raising the grossly inadequate salaries of the lowest-paid architectural workers. - In order to share equitably the work available, a max- imum work week of 35 hours or even less and no overtime work as a substitute for full employment. There are other proposals in the areas of medical engin- ecring and urban transport. 2. Collaborate with organised building workers not only in their campaign to end the “lump,” but also to ensure decent, healthy and safe conditions on site and to dev- elop “Green Ban'-type actions blacking politically, socially or environmentally destructive projects. Archit- ectural workers could also begin to refuse to collaborate on projects unless the workers who build them are ensured fair wages, decent conditions and trade union representation, 8. To increase the accountablity of the profession, cam- paign for changes in the Architects Registration Acts in sive’ bread-and-butter trade unionism is particularly well- entrenched, large unions have recently pioneered collectively- bargained health and safety agreements and the giant United ion to envi Democracy at Work The Professional Myth The other classic argument is based upon another aspect of the “professional myth.” Again, itisusually applied to the “architect,” ignoring half of the workforce in architecture. The salaried architect, it gocs, will eventually become a partner and not only sees his security in a partnership rather than through the solidarity of trade union action but already shares the employer's mentality, He has no long-term interest in building the union; quite to the contrary, he already takes an active interest in the employers’ institutions. Myths do die hard, but with 80% of even “architects” already salaried and the figure steadily mounting, the “proletarianisation” of the profession is beginning to be understood. Reality can only so long be denied. The rapid growth of white collar and profess- dona’ trade union militancy in the past few years confirms this. Others argue convincingly that trades unionism can only be built upon solidarity and that “architects” will never over- come the individualism and competitiveness which stems from their middle-class backgrounds and education. (And with the employers’ control of ARCUK and thus of architec- tural education, the title, “architect,” is by now virtually restricted to people with that background and education.) Fortunately, the education system is les than 100% efficient and it has been demonstrated that even a middle-class back- ground doesn’t preclude the development of solidarity at work. A corollary to this argument is that the architect is anxious to maintain asocial status which places him in that increasing- ly select circle “‘above”’ trade unionism. How much remains of the architect's vaunted status today is another question. The current form of this argument is perhaps that trade who were sacked after publicly criticising, as professionals, a scheme being done by their employers in collaboration with a firm of property developers, were reinstated thanks to the backing of their union, NALGO. That is hardly an isolated example. Many non-union profes- sionals who have acted on their responsibility to serve the public interest have found themselves without a job and mysteriously unable to find a new one. Two cases from the United States may highlight the issue. A non-union professional engineer assigned by his very reput- able consulting engineers’ firm to supervise the welding in the construction of a nuclear power plant noticed many potentially-dangerous defects in the welding which could result in the release of radioactivity into the neighbourhood of the plant. He repeatedly tried to warn his employers of the situation. Finally, he resigned after being told by his employer that he was to be sacked for “lack of experience in welding,” an unusual charge against someone who had been a journeyman welder for 24 years and most of whose engin- cering experience was in welding. His court case against his employers floundered for lack of funds. He was unable to find another job and believes himself to be the victim of a blacklist. On the other hand, a quality control inspector at Gencral Motors car plant discovered a defect in the welding of rear- quarter panels which could permit exhaust fumes to leak into the car, After repeatedly pointing out the defects to his superiors, to no avail, he was transferred to another depart- ment. Finally, three years later, after at least four motorists had been asphyxiated, the company acknowledged the defect and recalled 2.4 million cars for repair. Subpoenaed as a witness in a trial involving the defective cars, the inspector found himself sacked upon returning to work. Through the order to remove control over the Architects Registration Council (ARCUK) from management and divide it between laymen representative of the people who use buildings and archi 1 employes and employers in proportion to their relative numerical strengths in the profession. A reconstituted ARCUK could promulgate and enforce a “code of conduct” in the interests of the public and workers in the profession. Such a code might permit among architects only non-profit, self-managed forms of practice which provide for direct accountability to the ity an I internal di . Protection of the title, “‘architect,” and control over architectural education should no longer be used to filter out those potential architects who come from working- class backgrounds or who might otherwise tend to upset architectural management's neat little applecart. Archit- ectural workers could fight for an end to education without jobs and jobs without education by demanding adequate on-the-job training and continuing education. 4. Collaborate with trade unions in other countries (part- icularly the EEC) to ensure that international policies affecting architectural practice, building and the environ- ment are in the interests of architectural workers and the community. There are very few problems facing architecture today that trade union organisation and action could not come to grips with and make a real contribution towards resolving, We believe that unionisation is the only way that architectural workers can begin to gain control over their working lives. At the same time it would be a positive step forward for the building industry and for the community. We don’t see organisation in the work place as a panacea. We sec itas one necessary ingredient in an interdependent, three-fold strategy for progress, alongside action in the community to develop Structures of direct involvement and accountability and political action on abroad scale. WHAT KIND OF ORGANISATION ? The real question now is, “What kind of trade union organ- isation is appropriate today for people working in architecture and the allied building professions?” An approach to trade unionism is needed which will not only facilitate organisation in the first instance but also maximise in the long run the benefits of organisation to both workers and community. The direction we recommend has already been implied in our analysis of the situation in architecture today and our sketch of what a union could accomplish. This direction has a long history which has continued to dey- elop and make a stronger impact on the British trade union movement. Witness the growing recognition of the key role of workplace representatives (“shop stewards”) in the union Structure, the industrial occupations and setting-up of self- ag workers’ peratives,” the exp d legislati for a b ig of some formalised “industrial democracy,” andthe far-sightedandpositiveattitudetowardsthescopeof union activity typified by the “Green Bans”pioneered in Australia by the Building Labourers’ Union of New South Wales and the proposals for conversion to socially-useful production which have been made by the Lucas Acrospace Strong, militant and democratic “shop floor’ trade union isation is not merely an essential means in the struggle for “‘workers’ control” but the embryo as well for the end which is being sought. While it emphasizes the primacy of the work place as the scene of the confrontation between two mutually-antagonistic conceptions of social organisation, it stresses as well the complementary need for active political mobilisation on a broader plane to replace the market system and the institutions which perpetuate it. This type of trade unionism is the most likely to be relevant to the concerns of architectural workers about the nature of the product they produce and the use to which it is put, about the way the work of architecture is organised, and about the satisfaction they receive from doing their job, Its explicit call for self-management is particularly relevant in architectural practice, where many of the “obstacles” to it which exist in industry are more easily overcome. Moreover, because of its broader appeal and its emphasis on strong shop floor organisation, it may also be most likely to achieve penis and lasting progress on bread-and-butter issues as well, The Shop (Office) Floor Architectural workers want a positive trade unionism whose aim is to combat both the material privations of the market system and the lack of accountability and humanity which it engenders. This requires a unionism based in the daily exper- lence of its members and accountable to their wishes, Trade union organisation firmly based on the “shop floor” will enable members to formulate policies in the context they know best. In this way, too, the everyday opposition of workers to the oppressive and de-humanising forces of the market remains undiluted by remote hierarchies acting on their behalf. CAN ARCHITECTURAL WORKERS ORGANISE? Is there really any reason to believe that architectural em- ployees actually can organise, notwithstanding the need to do so and the benefits which would accrue for organisation? joni: predating plastics, iP and iology, isn’t interventionf his union, the United Automobile Workers, Auto Workers (which covers much heavy machinery and the aircraft industry as well)have begun to devote considerable qT . “trendy” enough for the architect. Unfortunately, one can’t pay the rent with “status,” and “trendiness” is no substitute for a full stomach, fulfilling work, and self-respect. This is beginning to dawn on those who have hitherto been too casily satisfied for their own good. It is also becoming increas- ingly apparent that architectural reformism is painting itself into a corner, despite the frenzied efforts of the media to market the latest panaccas. Employers of course, have always argued that trade unionism is incompatible with “ professionalism.” Industrial action, or even mere union membership is unprofessional, unethical, irresponsible. In the past, many white-collar unions would bend over backwards to accommodate this vicw as the situation of professional employees changes and as trade unionism among them becomes more commonplace, these slightly degrading rituals have become less necessary. In fact, professional, scientific and technical employees are increas- ingly finding that management's version of “professionalism” often paysFittle more than lip service to the public interest it is supposed to serve and that they can better turn to their own trade unions that to the employers’ institutes for a defence of real professionalism. It was widely reported in the press recently how two architectural assistants in Scotland DONT worry, t'M LOOKING AFTER “THE PUBLICS INTERESTS he not only got reinstated immediately, with back pay for time lost in court, but eventually was able to force his employer to give him back his original inspectors’ job. Fragmentation at Work More serious arguments against the feasibility of organising among architectural workers hinge upon the apparent frag- mentation of the profession. The classic form of employer- encouraged fragmentation divides architectural workers into several categories, each of which is alleged to have its own special interests which override any common ones. To rein- force what is often a difference in class background, there is the statutory division of architectural workers into those who are “‘architects” and those who are “architectural tech- nicians,” otherwise known as draughtsmen. This type of division is carried further by the creation among salaried architects in private practice of “associate” status. And the technician, is then placed one step above the clerical staff. Then there is a division of architectural workers “horiz- ontally” into distinct “crafts.” (The distinctions of course, can blur easily when there’s a scramble for work.) Thus we have the intricate and cultivated division of building design into tasks for architects or surveyors, town planners or the tradition of a strong but narrow and essentially “‘defen- This conception stresses the need for workers to gain full, democratic control over all aspectsof their working lives, not merely over wages, hours, job security and pensions. It does this not only out of a fundamental faith in democracy and egalitarianism, and their ability to mobilise people's product- ive and creative capacities, nor merely out of a recognition that low wages and insecure are not the only harmful and oppressive aspects of capitalist control which need to be met head-on. It believes that unless workers take the initiative and fight that system of control where they work, replacing “management prerogative”’ with democratic self-management, the fight for even decent wages and job security will remain a rear-guard, defensive action, increasingly unfruitful. shop stewards combine committee. Even in the USA, where One of the classic arguments against the feasibility of organ- isationisthattheincentivestojoinatrade es lacking {at least among “‘architects”). Architects, we are told, are well-paid; their employers are liberal; their work is neither back-breaking, impersonal nor hazardous and provides a high level of job satisfaction; and as “professionals” they enjoy a high level of control over the organisation of their work. Without beginning a discussion of whether this was ever an accurate picture, and for whom, it should be obvious by now that this no longer applies to the overwhelming majority of architectural workers, (including most “‘architects”) whose worries in the present economic crisis only thinly conceal a deeperuncertaintyaboutthefutureofthebuilding industry and the economy, not to mention the future roles of the various “designprofessions.” urban désigners, structural and services engineers, quantity surveyors, building control officers, etc. This division, we are told, is the result ofan inevitable historical process of specialis- ation for the purpose of maximising efficiency. EF FICIENCY! Though the trend has been towards increasing centralisation, the employment pattern in architecture, particularly in the private sector, has traditionally been characterised by a great number of small offices. This usually makes more difficult not only organising in the first place but maintaining what organisation has been achieved, especially when combined with high staff turnover, a characteristic of the profession when times are good, particularly in London where perhaps half of the architectural employment in Britain is located. At this point though, with the economic crisis pushing many small practices to the wall and with large, bureaucratic pract- ices in public and private sectors under increasing attack both from within and without, trade union supported “shop-floor” initiatives to convert practices to self-managed cooperatives directly accountable to user groups may be the only way out. The “typical” career structure in British architecture, when combined with the present form of the British trade union movement, adds a further obstacle to organisation. In one working lifetime an architectural worker may not only pass through the territories of two or three different public sector unions but may also pass back and forth from organised to unorganised territory, not a recipe for active trade unionism. The corollary is that the trade unions are also quite under- standably discouraged by this fragmentation from cither actively organising architectural workers or paying much attention to a small architectural “minority” of their mem- bers. LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE The idea of trade union organisation in architecture is not, in fact, entirely new. It is instructive briefly to examine the history of organising in architecture and to consider its implications. The “Architects? and Surveyors’ Assistants Professional Union” (ASAPU) was founded in 1919 amidst the intense industrial unrest and union activity which followed the 1914- 1918 war. In 1924, already 60% of the profession was salaried. The union grew in strength to 2500 by the mid- Twenties, at a time when there were only about 12,000 “architects.” In 1924, the name was changed to “Association of Architects, Surveyors and Technical Assistants” (AASTA). By the mid-Thirties, in the depths of the Depression, though 70% of the profession was by then salaried, unemployment was 30% and the membership was again 2500. It emerged from the Second World War as the “Association of Building Technicians” (ABT) with amembership which reached 3500, though it never had more than a thousand architects. By now it has hardly more than 200 architect members anda similar number of architectural technicians or assistants. In the late ‘60's it was absorbed into the Amalgamated Soci Woodworkers. That subsequently became the “Uni Construction, Allied Trades, and Technicians” (UCATT) and last year the remnants of the ABT were absorbed into its newly-formed “Supervisory, Technical, Administrative, Man- agerial and Professional” (STAMP) section, made up largely of site foremen and other supervisory staff transferred from the manual craft sections. A “Craft Union” During its heyday in the Twenties and Thirties, the union concentrated its energy on trying to get a minimum salary scale for the profession, to get representation for salaried architects on the RIBA Council and, in the tradition of “craft unions”, to limit the number of workers entering architecture by setting more stringent and time-consuming educational standards. Its main efforts on these issues were made in negotiations with the RIBA, rather than directly with the employer in the architectural office. It collaborated with the RIBA in supporting the passage of the Architects Registration Acts, apparently in “return” for expected RIBA agreement to a minimum salary scale. But surprise, the RIBA never did agree to one. AASTA then adopted a some- what more militant tone, and membership took an upturn. It didn’t affliliate to the TUC, however, until 1939. Why did this pioneering effort “fade into obscurity” as a trade union for architectural workers? Probably because, despite its numbers it never achieved any real bargaining strength where it counts, on the “shop floor’ (ic. in the office) and thus could never “‘deliver the goods.” It was apparently never strong enough in any private sector firm to achieve recognition as the representative of itsmembers in. collective bargaining, the first step for any union wishing to be effective. Historical factors certainly played a role in this. Less of the profession was salaried in those days and small offices were more numerous, making effective organising more difficult. The legislative and judicial situation then also made achieve- ing union recognition in the workplace moredifficult than it now is, especially since the passage of the Trade Union and Labour Relations Act of 1974, and the Employment Protec- tion Act of 1975. Much of the ABT leadership at one time apparently subscribed to the then current “socialism in one country” line emanating from Moscow and was perhaps not oriented towards industrial militancy in Britain. Instead, several rose to management positions in local authority (and even private) practice and to prominence in the employer- dominated RIBA, whether in pursuit of the party line or of personal inclination it is difficult to judge. Solidarity at the place of work too often took a back seat to discussions of “professional” issues at Portland Place. It is difficult to judge how the union was compromised by its collaboration with the RIBA. It fought for seats on the RIBA Council, helped set up the Board of Education, and supported the Architects Registration Acts. Yet it had never been in a position to deal with the employers’ isation froam position of gth Perhaps the key reason for the “failure” of ASAPU —AASTA — ABT was that as a “craft union” of architects, assistants and technicians it was unwilling to organise all employees, including clerical staff, in the office, clearly a necessary step in achieving any real bargaining strength. Union activity consequently came to centre around the branches and the national executive rather than in the office where people actually work and produce together and can be directly represented by “shop stewards.” This lack ofa strong organ- isation may be O.K. for a “friendly society,” but we believe it does not make fora strong union, may facilitate domination by a bureaucratic minority, and results in the leadership getting out of touch with the rank and file. Even in thepublic sector, where most of its members were, the ABT’s precarious position was gradually croded away by more general unions like NALGO which have the muscle to negotiate with em- ployers and deliver the goods. THE SITUATION IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR Nearly two-thirds of all architectural employment is in the private sector. At present, trade union organisation among these workers is insignificant, though nevertheless growing. In addition to the occasional “individual” member of ASTMS (Association of Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs), STAMP, TASS (Technical, Administrative and Supervisory Section of the AUEW the engineering workers’ union), or TGWU, some people working in “in-house” architecural, Surveying or engineering departments in industry, commerce or the “voluntary sector” (e.g. housing associations) are represented by a union (typically ASTMS, TASS, Dissatisfaction, Apathy Many architectural workers in the public sector are dissatis- fied with the unions which represent them, and it is likely that the level of membership is somewhat lower among them than the average among public sector white-collar workers. None of the unions concerned could actually put their finger on the number of architectural workers who were members or on the percentage of their “architectural constituency” which was organised. Until recently, few architectural workers in the public sector have taken an active interest in the union which represents them. Perhaps part of the reason for this may be that they have rarely found these unions relevant to their day-to-day, “drawing board” concerns, as tiny minorities in unions other- wise having little to do with architecture. Yet the decline of the elitist, RIBA-endorsed “AOA” (Association of Official Architects) and of the “craft union” ABT (and the rise of more general unions like NALGO) confirms the undeniable fact that “the most appropriate union to join is the one that actually negotiates for your type of job” and which is broad enough to include the “industrial muscle” that must stand behind any negotiating position. As the cuts in housing, Social services, health, rail, etc. expenditure begin to bite and the rate of redundancies accelerates, it is inevitable that the importance to architectural workers in the public sector of the recognised unions will increase, as will the understanding of the need for close organisational alliance with other workers involved in the provision of these services. The lack of “craft” concern of the recognisedwhite-collar unions in the public sector is an obvious cause of the apathetic response of architectural workers to them. Yet it is also one which can very easily obscure far more significant causes. A typical white-collar worker in the public sector may spend his or her entire career within the “constituency” o! _one recognised union. The “typical career structure” in architec- ture, on the other hand, as has been indicated, may well pass through the territories of more than one union in thepublic Sector not to mention the unorganised expanses of the private sector. It has not been unusual for an architectural worker to move froma local authority to private practice, to teaching Or research, to central government or a nationalised industry, into a contractor’s office or private industry, and perhaps half-way back again, all in one working lifetime. This state of affairs hardly provides an incentive to the architectural worker to take an active part in his or her trade union and make the kind of long-term and deep-seated commitment upon which effective trade union organisation depends. What may be the most important reason forthe apathy of architectural workers towards the public sector unions which represent them has more to do with the general nature of those unions than with any special problems ofarchitectural work. Most of these unions began as paternalistic “staff associations” and were able because of this, and because of for the practical purposes of everyday working life. While the extent of union membership tends to decrease the farther up the ladder of salaried management one looks (though even the upper echelons are increasingly organised), some of these architectural managers have at times been able unduly to influence union activity (or inactivity) in their departments. They often share the outlook and concerns of architectural employers in private practice, within whose institutions they may take an active role. Given the career structure in archit- ecture, it is not unknown to move from a position of respon- sibility in the public sector to a partnership in private prac- tite, nourished by connections (to say the least) cultivated “in the public service.” It is obvious how sucha situation can not only weaken the effective functioning of the union in the workplace, but by calling into question the union's credibility as the bona-fide defender of the interests of the worker at the drawing board, it can prevent effective organ- ising in the first place. Public Sector, Private Standards Trade union organisation has a key role to play in the relat- ionship between private and public architectural practice. Because of the almost total lack of organisation in the private sector, and that sector's historical and numerical predomin- ance in the profession, thepublic sector employers, through their “‘professional institute” (and their control of ARCUK, the statutory body responsible for “regulating the profession” which has achieved recognition for or TGWU) dealing with a larger group of white-collar workers in the firm. = the “liberal” attitude of public sector employers, to gain Tecognition fairly easily and without the extent of industrial action upon which most unions with a consequent tradition for shop-floor activism and democracy have been built. Because of the procedure, now under increasing attack, of dealing with the employer through top-level “Whiteley” councils, there has been little involvement of rank-and-file members in negotiations or related industrial actions. And the historical development of these unions as “elite” non- manual unions has shielded them from organisation contact with better organised and more militant manual workers. This is only now and slowly beginning to be overcome (as with joint shop stewards committees) under pressure of common threats and with the growing “‘proletarianisation” of white-collar work which has made it increasingly difficult to get much mileage out of much-vaunted “professional” Status. continued spread both ofthe closed shop and of redundancies into the public sector, this percentage is bound togrow, There are at least eight unions which have achieved recogn- ition for representing architectural workers in the various arts of the public sector. The largest ofthese is NALGO, the ational Association of Local Government Officers, Sixty per cent of its membership is in local government and the rest is in regional hospital boards, water authorities, new towns, etc. The GLC Staff Association is limited to the Greater London Council and the Inner London Education Authority. IPCS (Institute of Professional Civil Servants) covers the DOE, PSA, and other organs of central govern- ment; TSSA (Transport Salaried Staffs Association), British Rail and London Transport; EPEA (Electrical Power Engin- cers’ Association), electrical power supply; and AUT (Assoc- iation of University Teachers) and NATFHE (National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education), architectural workers teaching in universities and polytech- nics. All of these, despite the names, are by now affiliated to the TUC. Most of the architectural membership of STAMP is apparently still in the public sector, but only at the Edin- burgh office of the Scottish Special Housing Association (despite the name, a public sector body) has it achieved bargaining rights, which itshares with NALGO. The “elitist” tendency of these unions has resulted notonly in this counter-productive separation from manual workers. The other side of the coin has posed another problem, even if less significant. While architectural work is structured more or less similarly in both public and private sectors, architec- tural management in the public sector (the “boss” to the worker at the drawing board) is salaried while his counterpart in the private sector is most likely to be the partner who owns the firm. The public sector unions, like the ABT as a craft union trying unsuccessfully to compete with the bosses’ RIBA, have always allowed membership not only to the architectural worker but also to the man who is the boss eS In the public sector, trade union recognition has come more easily. Membership in white-collar unions in the public sector is steadily growing and is now estimated to be over 75%. While there are extreme variations from office tooffice, probably between 50% and 75% of public sector workers in the building professions are members of the union which represents them in negotiations with their employers. With and controlling architectural education), have been able al- most unilaterally to dictate the shape of the profession, public sector included Their model of practice — excess hierarchy and bureaucracy, elitism and a “two-tier profes. sion, profit-oriented accounting, lack of accountability to users — has been imposed on the public sector as well. Their influence on the structure of the profession, its ethos, its codes and regulations, etc. is even more profound. Lack of effective trade union organisation among architect- ural workers in the private sector has no doubt encouraged some architectural workers there who are “fully-qualilfied architects” to become members of the clitist, anti-union RIBA (for the initials after their name, if fornothing else), despite their understanding that it represents primarily the interests of the employers. This bolstering of the “profes- sional institute” (often aided by the employer's insistence on his qualifiedstaff joining and sometimes by his willingnestso pay his employees annual and tax deductible RIBA subscrip- tion) inevitably increases its attractiveness to some architects in the public sector as well, considering the lack of a trade union there which seems relevant to their daily “drawing board” concerns. A Common Adversary There can be little doubt that the emergence of a strong, unified, effective trade union organisation in the private sector will weaken the hold of the private sector bosses over the entire profession and help to destroy the illusion of the RIBA as a “professional institute.” There can also be little doubt that the bosses will fight trade union organisation by al the means at their command, subtle and not-so-subtle. The support of public sector architectural trade unionists will be important in the struggle to organise in the private-sector, but they may give that support not merely out of solidarity but in their own interests as well, since organisation in the private sector (and the changes that could make in the prof- ession) will inevitably inject some fresh life blood into trade unionism among public sector architectural workers and help to weaken a common adversary: architectural bureaucracy, hierarchy, elitism and unaccountability. Making the Union Work This not to imply that improvement of the trade union sit- uation among architectural workers in the public sector must await organisation in the private sector. Increasing numbers of white-collar workers throughout the public sector are working within the unions which represent them to help transform them into stronger, more active, and more demo- cratic organisations, more responsive to the varying needs of the membership “on the shop floor."’ Shop stewards commit- tees are being formed and shop floor negotiation is gaining ground. The campaign against the cuts in housing, health and social services, rail services, etc., will accelerate the conver- sion of these unions into more industrially militant and politically active organisations while necessitating the devel- opment of stronger ties with blue-collar unions and other organisations of working people (tenants, claimants, squatt- ers, students, patients, etc.) who get hit by the cuts from the other side. It is important that architectural workers concern- ed not only about their job security but about what they produce and for whom they produce it should play their role in this process, Perfection and Purity It is often said that union members tend to get the union they deserve. As was pointed out in the excellent Autumn 1976 Case Con issue on trade unionism (referring to NALGO), “The union can be made to work. It takes time and effort, but it can be done.” In discussing organisation among social workers, it notes that “Faced with the immense task of building up a departmental organisation within NALGO, often in the face of hostility from right-wing members who control the branch, groups of social workers have turned elsewhere secking the Holy Grail of a trade union of perfec- tion and purity.” This has resulted in the launching of NUSW, a new “craft union” for social workers, apparently excluding al administrative and support workers. “NUSW may be able ultimately to negotiate for social workers, but it will never have any muscle worth flexing because industrial action by social workers cannot hit the power blocks of cap- italism where it hurts, by interrupting the productive process to slow the creation of profits.” “The supporters of NUSW argue that the strength and size of NALGO isoutweighed by the need for unity among different groups of social workers, and also that the diversity of NALGO membership means it is unable to do justice to the specialist concerns of social workers. But unity for what? Unity in purposeful action is the worthwhile goal to strive for, not the empty purity that NUSW offers. ...Leaving NALGO in search of the Holy Grail of perfection is copping out of the vital task of building a strong, effective trade union organis- ation, where officials and union policy are controlled by rank- and-file membership, and struggles can be generalised on an effective scale. ... During the past five years, there have been a lot of progressive changes in NALGO, mainly because an increasing number of people have come together and, build- ing on that solidarity, worked to make the union more demo- cratic, more forceful, and more meaningful to the majority of the membership.” Architectural workers throughout the various parts of the public sector, in the various unions which The Carve-Up To make recognition in the office more difficult, the employ- ers will attempt to encourage a vertical “‘carve-up,” with Separate unions for “‘clericals,” ‘‘technicians,” and “profes- sionals.” (With luck, they might even manage one union for architects, one for quantity surveyors, one for structural engineers, etc.) On the other hand, to further retard organis- ation and prevent the emergence of a unified organisation throughout the private sector, the employers willencourage a “hori: I" division, encouraging the employees in FirmAtochooseUnionXifthoseyes Bhaveorganised within Union Y. And the two tactics can be combined. These tactics have recently been attempted by the Council of ing conditions, an industry-wide pension scheme, systems of “workers’ self-management” and accountability to the com- munity in the specific context of architectural Practice, a professional code of conduct in the interests of theworkers and the community, progressive design and specification unions,” a process which has already begun in some of the larger multi-disciplinary practices. This is likely to be only a temporary setback and in some cases even astep along the road to isati More dination among loy would be Necessary in order to encourage the formation of a idance, on-the-job training and continuing education, etc. Such cooperation is the only way to keep divisiveness bet- ween workers in different unions (especially on issues of “work load” and in cases of possible industrial action), from playing into the hands of a management which is already well-coordinated. Beyond that, it could effectively lobby against cuts in socially-necessary construction and would probably be the only conceivable organisation which could produce an architectural workers’ handbook (and guide to architectural employers), a progressive journal of architec- ture, and be the “official” voice of architectural workers as a whole before the community, the state, and fraternal tame” trade union-in-name-only, as was unsuccessfully attempted by the RIBA in the Public sector. bodies abroad. s ee represent them, face a similar challenge. AN ‘ARCHITECTURAL WORKERS’ ALLIANCE” The logic of taking an active part in the trade union which actually represents one, and the utter futility of attempting once again to achieve an effective “craft union” encompassing all architectural workers, should not obscure the growing realisation of the need for some sort of “umbrella” organis- ation grouping all architectural workers, no matter in which sector they are employed nor to which union they belong. All architectural workers do share many common concerns, and if one thing is certain, it is that they are not, and never could be, adequately catered for by the employer-dominated, elitist, ineffectual RIBA. Architectural workers are small minorities in about cight public sector unions. A union in the private sector will add a ninth. The tendency for more and more architectural work to be done “in-house,” by architectural departments in industry, commerce, housing, health services, etc. in both Sectors, rather than by outside “consultancies” (private or public) may or may not continue, but in any case its exist- ence reinforces the “‘dual-industry”’ nature of much architect- ural employment. It also suggests the possibility that more architectural workers may join the appropriate union in the industry in which they are actually employed, which does not necessarily mean NALGO in the public sector nor the needed multi-industry union for architectural workers in the private sector. In order to compensate for the inevitable and understandable lack of one union for all architectural workers, and notwith- standing the pressing need for unorganised workers in the private sector to organise within one, and only one, union, architectural workers should as soon as possible establish and build up a strong “alliance” or “institute” of organised arch- itectural workers. Such a body could bring trade unionists in architecture gether to help ise the ised and to ag active trade unionism in a multi-industry, multi-union occupation where the career structure may make difficult a long-term committment to one particular union. It would eventually be able to speak progressively, clearly and coher- ently for 35,000 architectural workers on issues of common dustrial, professional and i " where individual unions with small architectural minorities would have neither the interest, the will, nor the means to do so. Only then will architectural workers be able effectively to counteract the reactionary influence of what is essentially an employers’ association dressed up as a “professional institute, the RIBA, with itsstranglehold over architectural education, qualification, and practice, and its claim, in the present vacuum, to speak for the “whole profession.” Coordination, Action, or Division? An “alliance” or institute’ of architectural workers could assist the relevant trade unions in developing and implement- ing (at gras roots rather than at headquarters level) co- ordinated policies and action campaigns on wages and work- Building up such an “alliance” or “insti architectural workers should bea priority of all trade union- ists in architecture and should win the support of al unions with a growing interest in public policy on the environment, housing, archi town pl land, energy, technical and professional education, etc. As architectural workers in the private sector will have their hands full in the next few years building an effective trade union isati the initiative must come, in the first instance, from the public sector. Workers in the other building professions may also feel the need to establish analagous bodies and develop close “inter-professional” liaison with that in architecture. THE NEED FOR UNITY IN THE PRIVATE SECTOR How will private sector architectural employers respond to growing trade union organisation among their employees? There really is no reason to believe that their responses will differ significantly from those of employers in other areas of industry and commerce. Some will resist tooth-and-nail, using all the time-honoured methods of union bashing. Others will seek to delay and de-fuse organisation by encour- The “alliance” or “institute” should be constituted as demo- cratically as possible, with local, regional, and national structures organised from the membership level up, based on “shop floor” organisation in each architectural office or department. Periodic congresses could delegate central execution of policies as necessary. Research and publications facilities would probably be needed. Because of the relation- ship between practice, education, and training, membership should be open to d and hers (but not ag ment) in architectural education as well as to workers in practice. The most serious anti-union effort by the employers, acting independently as well as through their institutions, islikely, wever, to take the form of an attempt to encourage a multiplicity of unions in the private sector so that it becomes more difficult for any union to achieve recognition in an office and so that when recognition is finally achieved it will not be able to pose a unified threat to the employers’ claims to “speak for the profession.” aging the blish of “staff iations” or “ MANYUONIONS....2 pany 200,000 chartered professional engineers. In a report pub- lished last year, the C.E.I. noted that over a third of profes- sional engineers are already organised in bona-fide unions but pointed out that in the private sector, where over 60% of professional engineers are employed, only 10% are already ganised. The report d, therefi on that area. Pseudo-Unions and Passive Professionals? Noting the bread-and-butter incentives for engineers in the private sector to organise and, seeing the closed shop and some form of employee participation in management men- acing on the horizon, the C.E.I. urged them to join small, ineffectual “pseudo-unions” which are not affliliated to the TUC, which hardly have a chance of ever achieving recogn- ition in any office, and which appeared willing to dance to the Chartered Institutions highly paternalistic and clitist tune. This, it was hoped, would forestall the growth of bona-fide, TUC-affiliated unions like AUEW(TASS) and ASTMS who already have a foothold among professional engineers. The whole tone of the report was to suggest that professional engineers should passively “join a union,” picking and choosing among the C.E.I.’s worthies on the basis of personal preference as if one was purchasing an insurance policy, rather than actively organising their union among their colleagues. of ised Engi ing g ane Instituti an Same brela body groupithneg15 raat cate Se, Nse.ORONEPF =x nae TS ~xe, vv W>e¥ ~ vv a' —> SESey 10 12 While a similar approach will appeal to the mam short- sighted employers in architecture as well, it is hardly likely to satisfy the growing number of architectural employees who want an effective trade union organisation at their place of work. For them, the need to compromise with personal preferences in order to come toa collective agree- ment ona single, unified vehicle for trade union organisation among all the 50,000 unorganised employees in theprivate sector of the building professi is app Cc loining the carpenters, the plasterers went in with the build- g ELeereTdandbuildingmaterialsdriversintheTGWU, and the plumbers joined the elctricians in what is now known as the Electrical, Electronic, Telecommunications and Plumbing Union (EETPU). call for timately works only in the employers’ interests. ul- ug! 's and Allied Technicians’ Association, and now the Technical, Administrative and Supecvisory, Section of the AUEW), APEX (the Association of Professional, Executive, Clerical and Computer Staffs, formerly the Clerical and Administrative Workers Union), and ACTS (the Association of Clerical, Technical and Supervisory Staffs, part of the TGWU). Public sector unions, with the possible exception of the Electrical Power Engineers Association, will generally not organise in the private sector. Conversely, architectural workers trying to organise in the private sector will have their hands full even without attempting counter-productive “raiding” of workers in the public sector, something few unions are nowadays eager to do and which violates the TUC's “Bridlington Principles” governing relations between unions. The Unacceptable Alternative Still, there may be as many as half a dozen “appropriate” unions for architectural and allied workers in the private sector. The immediate prospect for achieving “one union” might not appear very encouraging. If architectural workers Straggle into a handful of different unions, which will happen unless they take a collective initiative, the result will be thatt Aatinevitabl iaatons Le 1 1 ad workers in the allied professions will proceed slowly, sporad- ically and hesitantly; will be unnecessarily protracted; will temain incomplete, and will never be able to contribute to the workers, profession, industry and community what an effective, coherent union could. The difficult initial organis- ing would become practically impossible without the realistic Prospect of an eventual coherent, effective trade union organisation of private sector architectural and allied workers. Up until now, however, no trade union has been seriously interested in launching in the building professions the kind of organising drive that would have arealistic chanceof success, considering the difficulties already described. Architectural workers should have no illusions about this. They should also consider the possibility that, should an effective organising campaign get started, hitherto lukewarm unions may show a sudden enthusiasm for organising, encouraged by anequally sudden interest by employers in “good industrial relations. Some form of trade union organisation in the private sector is inevitable. To achieve really effective organisation, and to achieveitwhenitisreallyneeded,however,suchobstacles must be overcome. This can be done by a carefully con- sidered strategy and committment, hard work anda willing- ness to take personal risks. Only architectural workers them- selves can provide this. If they do, the trade union movement will contribute the essential support that only it is in a pos- ition to provide. Both manual and non-manual workers, with growing concern about the built environment they must live and work in, are today increasingly likely to welcome the organisation of architectural workers and support their struggles. “Industrial Muscle” The need for one, and only one, union for al people working in the private sector of the building professions should be clear by now. A “craft union” for architects alone isjust not on. Unless al workers in the office are organised together, the bare minimum of “industrial muscle” to achieve even recognition will be lacking and an organising drive will face an additional, unnecessary and crippling burden with which it could hardly cope. In times of dispute, having the telephonist and secretary on your side can be useful. Somedefendnarrowlytheirowninterestswithlittleregard Whatresourcescantheunionmakeavailableforan Among white collar unions there are four of major significance in Gheprivate sector: ASTMS, TASS (formerly DATA, the Deaick In collectively selecting one union within which to organise, what types of choices must be made? Over the years, several different types of unions have developed in Britain. They can be distinguished by different conceptions of their “‘constit- uencies” as well as by differences in structure and orientation. for those of other workers, while other tinions see their own progress as inseparable from that of the labour movement in its broadest sense and act accordingly both on the shop floor and in the community. Some have a docile attitude towards management while others are militant and incorruptible representatives of their members’ interests. Some unions are run from the top down in a hierarchy mir- roring that of capital, while others function by a democracy built up from the “grass roots” and dependent upon an active rank and file. Some unions function mainly by full- time, permanent “professional” trade union “administrators,”” while others are essentially “amateur” operations, with the bulk of the task left to the “lay’’ membership rather than to the “experts,” and officials, generally elected, returning to their old jobs after relatively short terms in union office. In the history of trade unionism all those contrasting positions have existed, but today in Britain the differences between and within unions, while significant, are often of degree rather than of kind, can change over the years and are not always easy to discern from without. “Bourgeois Individualism”? organising driv {c.g., financial, personnel, legal, research, publicity, etc.) especially in the crucial first year? 1.6 How would the union's present specific organisational strength (c.g., industries, occupations, regions) be of particular aid to an organising drive among workers in the building professions? What specific “industrial muscle” (e.g., sections of membership etc.) would the union be able to bring to bear in support of a potential dispute involving work- ers in the building professions? What particular resources can the union draw upon to support the particular needs of professional, technical, and clerical workers (e.g., aid in negotiations, research, propaganda, etc.)? Would the union support the establishment of a membership level “alliance” (or “institute") bringing together architectural workers from the relevant trade unions in both sectors? STRUCTURE To what extent do the rank and file run the union, or is the union actually controlled from the top down? 2.2 Is there a union “priesthood” or do the workers themselves administer the union, returning to the “shop floor” after brief terms in union office? 2.3 How powerful are elected “shop stewards” in the union structure? Do they get full support from full-time union officials? To what extent does shop floor initiative and action get smothered under the weight of union bureaucracy and hierarchy? Are union officials elected or easily subject to recall? Is opposition within the union to its present leader- ship and official policics s!lowed freely to associate and to gain a platform for its views? ATTITUDES Does the union take a clear and uncompromising position in defence of the interests of workers when in conflict with those of management or its instit- utions? Will the union actively fight not only for better wages but for full control by workers of all aspects of their working lives, by both “shop floor” organisation and broader political action? It is further important that al employees in private sector building design, not just architectural workers strictly speak- ing, but also quantity surveyors, structural and services engineers, building surveyors, landscape architects, etc., be organised into one union. As co-producers of the same crs, p » P tc. though not easy, is essential. The alternative is having archit- product, mutual support in potential industrial disputes is 1 lumbers, etc.) ini of the medieval ectural workers straggling into a handful of unions, based on The carly unions developed along “‘craft” lines (e.g., carpent- We have emphasized the necessity of having one strong union for as many workers in the building professions as possible. The collective choice of one union within which toorganise, guilds. In order to match the growing power and flexibility of capital and to organise workers hitherto ignored by the craft unions, industrial unions developed, grouping all workers in an industry into one union. Because of the entren- ched craft union tradition and the growth of multi-industry “general” and white-collar-only unions, a true industrial union is hard to find in Britain, though the National Union of Mineworkers comes close. “Staff” or white-collar unions often organise across industrial lines, making a sort of ‘‘craft”” out of non-manual work, while the true general unions, like the TGWU, in principle organise workers at all levels in all industries, on the model of “one big union.” “Ideal Types” and Realities These “ideal types” hardly exist in practice today due to historical and practical circumstances. Public sector unions, having grown out of “staff associations,” define their con- stituencies in terms of the management structure of that sector, ignoring craft and industrial lines. The huge TGWU incorporates craft unions like the plasterers, has an industrial structure with sections for road haulage, docks, construction, i etc., in ition to its ional structure, and contains a white-collar section as well. essential And since one group is often capable of doing the same work as another (e.g., architects and surveyors), common organisation is essential to prevent not only explicit or de-facto “scabbing” on one another but also destructive competition for work at the other’s expense and jealous guarding of possibly outdated delineations of exclusive professional spheres which may prevent the pursuit of the common good as determined by al the workers together, in coordination withthe communities who use its products. “One Big Union?” The arguments for unified organisation have been put for- ward many times in the history of the trade union movement and have had, and continue to have, an important influence upon its development Witness the periodic batches of mergers, aimed at strengthening labour’s defences against the power and flexibility which capital has at its command through its companies, conglomerates, finance, state, and media. The fact is, however, that the historical development of trade unionism in Britian has not resulted in the formation of “one big union.’ Look, for example, at construction unions and white-collar unions, two areas of the appropriate for workers in the private sector of the building professions. In the building industry, after numerous amalgamations, the most recent in the late 1960's, there are three unions of major significance, though organisation as a whole remains comparatively weak. UCATT, formerly the Amalgamated Society of Woodworkers, includes now two other “craft unions,”thebricklayersandpainters.Whilethelatterwere bers’ inthe workpandinthe i anidentitycouldworkersinthebuildingprofessions toimprovingemploymentprospectsinthebuilding Perhaps the differences between unions in terms of structure and orientation are more significant. Some tend to be like friendly societies while others act more forcefully in the in- dustrial and political arenas. Some unions are concerned almost exclusively with bread-and-butter issues of wages, hours and pensions, while others take a broader view of their 1.3 What is the union's attitude towards organising salaried management in architecture? What safeguards can it provide which would prevent their gaining undue influence in an organisation of archijvctural workers? 3.3 What attitude will the union take towards existing pay and status differentials among architectural workers and what priority does it give to raising the levels of the lowest paid, both in architecture and in the broader economy? “personal preference.” Perhaps this is the first test of whether architects can overcome the “bourgeois individualism” which has condemned to failure or insignificance so many of their previous ‘‘reform”’ efforts. WHICH UNION ? The criteria which ought to be applied in making the collective choice of one union for the private sector are probably apparent by now. It is important, nevertheless, to make explicit the more important ones concerning the union's structure, its attitudes, and its potential role in a drive to Organise architectural workers. 1.0 11 ORGANISING ARCHITECTURAL WORKERS Is the union willing and able actively to organise al unorganised workers in the building professions, no matter what type or size of office they work in? 1.2 Will they organise al workers in such offices or departments, including clerical and administrative? 14 What degree of autonomy and how clear and coherent enjoy in the union? professions and to environmental issues as they 3.4 Is the union sympathetic to a broad-minded approach concern the community (e.g., “Green Bens,’ Lucas Aerospace shop stewards-type proposals, develop- ment of institutions for community control, ctc.)? Does the union identify employment security with the preservation of narrowly-defined “positions” rather than with a broader outlook on the division of labour and continuing education? 3.5 To what extent is the union willing and able to dev- clop cooperation and solidarity among al workers in the building industry? 3.6 To what extent does the union actively combat racism and male chauvinism among its members as well as in discrimination by employers and the state? Seu When the union invests (or even builds), does it take an environmentally, socially and politically respon- sible attitude? One Foot in the Construction Industry Of course, a union with an established presence in the construction industrywouldbepreferablbeu,tthatisclearly only one of many factors to consider, It must be borne in mind also that many of the clerical and administrative workers who will be organising along with technical and professional employees in the building professions might prefer a multi-industry union in which they could more likely remain should they switch to a similar job in another industry. The “‘dual-industry” character of “in-house” architectural departments also tends to reinforce the need for a multi-industry union. An architectural worker today may, for example, have one foot in the construction industry and the other in brewing, banking, housing or transport. A New Union? In applying the criteria listed above, it becomes apparent, for example, that no conceivably “appropriate” union gives a clear impression of an active grass-roots democracy, com- pletely unfettered by hierarchy and bureaucracy. If no exist- ing union satisfactorily fulfills all these demanding criteria, there always remains the possibility of starting from scratch and building up a new union expressly for workers in arch- itecture and the related building professions. This has obvious attractions, including the option of amalgamating in the future with a larger, more general union on terms preserving a reasonable degree of autonomy, as the Medical Practitioners Union did with ASTMS. Of course, considering the difficulties which an organising drive in the building professions is likely to encounter, the chances of getting a new union off the ground without the back-up which an already powerful union could more easily provide are pretty slim. Organising requires funds for person- nel, literature, legal fees and overheads and to cover for inevitable strikes, lock-outs, and victimisation. In addition, the expertise which comes from considerable trade union experience and the access to trade union allies in case of dis- putes are less likely to be easily available today to a new union, however genuine it may appear. But it has been done before and may conceivably be done again. Back to the Drawing Board In any event, the opportunity to begin organising must be seized. The subject israpidly moving into the spotlight and if the architectural workers don't move fast, the bosses no doubt will, accommodating as many as possible of the most docile unions they can find as soon as they perceive the threat of a really affective unionisation. So, back to the drawing board. . ...and Organise! SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY On trade unionism: Ken Coates and Tony Topham, The New Unionism: The Case for Workers’ Control, Penguin Books paperback, 1974. ESSENTIAL READING. Tony Topham, The Organised Worker, Arrow Books paper- back, 1975. Case Con, no, 23, Autumn 1976, “Union Issue.”’ 25p plus postage from Case Con, 74 Lytton Road, Leytonstone, London E.11. Lucas Aerospace Combine Shop Stewards Committee, “Dole Queue or Useful Products?”’ New Scientist, 3 July 1975. Dave Elliott, “Workers and the World Unite,’ Undercurrents 12. (On Lucas Aerospace shop stewards proposals.) “No More Work for Work's Sake,” Undercurrents 14. (On “Green Bans.") David M. Patterson, White Collar Militancy, Workers Educ- ation Association, 1975. 35p plus postage from WEA, 9 Upper Berkeley Street, London W, 1. On the situation in architecture: NAM Report on Architectural Practice, ARCUK, and the Architects Registration Acts, 30p postpaid from the New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, London W.1. A Short History of the Architectural Profession. 20p post- paid from The New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland Stect, London W1. Malcolm Mac Ewen, The Crisis in Architecture, RIBA Pub- lication Ltd., 1974, Edited extracts published in R/BA Journal, April 1974. (See also his long article, “What Can Be Done about Competence?” in The Architects Journal, 19 November 1975, pp 1063-1084.) Louis Hellman, “Democracy in Architecture,’ RIBA Journal, August 1973, pp 395-403, and ‘Professional Representation,” Architectural Design, March 1976, pp 156-159. JUST OFF TO A TRICKY CLIENT MEENNG... KEEP UP THE GOOD Work, CHAPS / Appendix Alternatives to Unionisation? Are there any alternatives to unionisation? that |reformism, h fi ee Wal sy resourceful animal, may be running out of rope. Among the ways by which “architects of conscience” have attempted in the recent past to find a way out are thefollowing: Modern and Post-Modern Various “formalisms” and other attempts to seok “techni topoliticalproblemshavealwaysbeenpopularinSete: {Cynics might say that is the profession's main role,) From the late NineteenthCenturyuntilaftertheSecondWorldWar,thegreatesten- ergy of mony talented and dedicated architects want into the “crusade” for “Modern Architecture.”Some of its leading exponents were Social Democrats or Communists (and some Social Democrats and Commun- istspatronisedthestyle),thusencouragingtheNazistoattackthe rolepossiblewithinpracticeasitnowis,haveretreatedintoLe style. This gave it great credibility after the Second World War until Its massive shortcomings became so painfully and tragically obvious that they could no longer be glossed over. This “movement” hasby now all but gone Into pleas! though its influence persists and though > an of building continues to obsess a few die-hards and maki jeadway where traditional labour-intensive building methods ind skis have not yet been stamped out. With “modern architacture” discredited Gesignors |have desperately searched for more sophisticated and credible “technical” answers: for another would-be solution which avoids or obscures the need for changes in the structure of thepro- fession (i.e, hi ural education and theory. While there is no doubt that important contributions can be made in this field, aven at times in isolation from Practice, there can also be littledoubt that there isatendency among some of these people to erect a protective shelter of miystification around their somewhat vulnerable and isolated professional position, technolony. eneray conservation, etc.). Short-CuttoSocialism? Many who realisedtha ” Progress without Power? Seeing the need for basic changes in the professional structure itself, groups like the New Architecture Movement have begun to call for its reorganisation into a public design service of small, locally-based, aButwithoutourdev Sieiete eatPolitical poreir to begin to move in this direction, let alone to fully realise the pro- possi now theyevenbeabletorealisticallydeveloptheconcepts emselves’ Illusions, Allies, and Tactics In the late Sixties, some salaried architects in public practice, in col- with some . began the latest attempt to gain influence within the employers’ organisation. The “Salaried Architects Group” on the RIBA Council was formed and got the RIBA’s electoral system modified inthe hope of giving the salaried majority of RIBA members some control of the organisation. Tbe group has subsequently spent years ofSorsicerable effort achiev- would solve none of the underlying problems of architecture and only served to mystify the profession and the public put their faith into the extension .of “socialism=nationalisation” into the practice of architecture. For them, the local $ was to be th .The notion of d however, no longer has the “pull it once had. The failure of public sector privatepractice, gethei 1 relations in the production of architecture and its inability to with- stand the forces of the market system externally have created broed disillusionment with local authority practice, as 8 solution in and of ingt th ‘ Aitectina y itself, both from within and from the community. “One-Off” Progress In an attempt to learn from the mistakes of more conventional Practices, a few “‘enlightened” architects have tried to create small, feirly “responsive practices,” more or less “democratically” run as cooperatives or modified partnerships. As “one-off” cases they have been obliged to compete in isolation for patronage, manpower, fin- ancing, etc. in a completely capitalist system whose business and pro- fessional structure has been designed for their more bureaucratic, hierarchical arid profit-oriented competitors. Yet because of their internal advantages as well as the unusual emount oftalent, effort and committment which those involved have brought to them, some of these practices have achieved limited success and have even been seized upon by the profession and media as signs of progress. Signs of hope they are, but it would be foolish to believe that in the present context such a course Is realistically open to any more than a token number of practices, without the backing of a strong trade union Organisation. Community Architecture Others in a related vein sought to rectify the obvious lack of direct accountability to the community which has characterised both private and public practice and set up would-be “community architecture offices” in the wake of the planning” These have been involved, with varying degrees of success, in fighting the Planning and architecture establishment in the name of threatened local, generally working-class, communities and providing them with orchitectural services to which they would not otherwise have access. \tappears token, local may be if not encouraged, in order to give the profession a slightly more pro- gressive and dynamic public image and to keep busy and content Some of the more committed young architectural workers while at the same time isolating them from the “mainstream” of architectural workers in the offices “downtown,” there is also reason to believe that this direction is hardly accessible as a “general solution” on any scale without major structural changes in the profession. In the mean- time, lacking a consolidated power base and with tenuous sources of funadndisunppogrt,suchofficesmayevenruntheriskofcompetition from the professional establishment itself, seeking to move in on the new “market” they have opened up, recoup some respectability and ‘ensure that “things don’t go too far,” “Code of Conduct” whose “enforcement” is still entrusted to the employers. Meanwhile, involvement at Portland Place has tended to isolate these articulate and committed architectural workers from their “‘constit- uency” while their token presence has perhaps encouraged the illusion that the RIBA might someday be made accountable to its salaried majority. Yet, how seriously would the RIBA's “democratic frame- work" be taken if it were ploced in the architectural office itself rather than at Portland Place, given the absence of strong “shop floor” organisation of architectural workers. We doubt whether the charade could continue. By removing the scene of confrontation from the work-place, where the conflicts are to a so-called “professional inst- itute,” the illusion of democracy is more easily sustained. Tactically, by trying to deal with the employers within the RIBA framework, rather than at the ploce of work, the S.A.G. denied themselves the support of many architectural wokers who are not even eligible for (or interested in) RIBA membership, while allying themselves instead with some architectural management. All the above-mentioned “tendencies” try to solve the pro- blems facing architecture by solutions” which attempt to avoid the inevitable need for collective action on the part of I to begin to transform the productive relations within architecture itself. When architectural workers are well-organised, these tendencies can cease to be the ambiguous “‘diversions” they are in the present context and begin to make a positive and significant contribution to architectural and social progress. “Self-Build,”. “Drop-Out’” One step forther istaken by advocates of “self-bulld” who attempt to "drop-out" of the building industry and al its frustrations, though they sometimes do reserve a continuing role for the architect. A Challenging Model itive Others have chosen to try to minimise their connections with the Tienesiysiemnisselsib)sexingopinre “communes.”Thisagain, jough inting o lenging mi |, Ismotan ion numbersofpeopleinthepresentcontext. Suen ee A Protective Shelter Some thoughtful architects, seeing no socially or creatively CONTENTS Why Organise? Areas for Union Action What Kind of Organisation? Can Architectural Workers Organise? Learning from Experience The Situation in the Public Sector An “Architectural Workers’ Alliance” The Need for Unity in the Private Sector Which Union? Appendix: Alternatives to Unionisation? What isthe “N.A.M.” The New Architecture Movement ("NAM") aims, through the collec- tive action of architectural workers and other concerned people, to play an active role in radically altering the system of patronage and power in architecture. It seeks an architectural practice directly accountable to all who use its products and democratically controlled by the workers within it. NAM aims thereby to promote effective control by ordinary people over their environment and by architect- ural workers over their working lives. The New Architecture Movement was founded in November 1975 ata National Congress held in Harrogate for the purpose of building up a broadly-based, progressive force for accountability and democracy in architecture. Interest in NAM Issteadily growing. Membership in NAM cost £5 for employed people and £2 for students and unemployed and includes a subscription to NAM’s newsletter, “Slate,” which is also available to non-members for £2 (or 40p per single copy). All enquiries about membership, the newsletter, other NAM publications, and NAM activities should be addressed to The Secretary, The New Architecture Movement, 9 Poland Street, London wi, onmroanr FN = Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource NAM Unionisation Report Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Murray Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource May 1977 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/ffe44e4d6e36781804a5ebb3b3850389.pdf 15ad4fd37c65317019740dda43699a52 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Unionisation Conference 14.5.77 Subject The topic of the resource Open letter & report re results of unionisation conference (4 sides) Description An account of the resource Dear UNIONISATION CONFERENCE MAY 14 1977 Gomt/ierer May 14 Unionisation Committee 26 May 1977 4Highshore Road London SE15 SAA As required by the "Special One-day Conference on Trade Union Organisation in Architecture and the Allied Building Professions", we enclose a short report on the conference proceedings, together with news of the Unionisation Committee's progress to date in working with TASS, in fulfilment of its obligations under the Second Conference resolution. As you may have read in the Press, the 1st London Branch of the 'Building Design Staff' section of TASS has been set up. The Committee visited TASS HQ in Richmond on Thursday 19 May when the AUEW-TASS Executive enthusiastically endorsed the formation of the new Building Design Staff Branch. The formal process will be completed at an inaugural meeting to be held in the New Ambassadors Hotel, Upper Woburn Place London WCl, on Tuesday 31 May at 6.30 p.m. Please try to attend. New members will be able to 'sign-up' on the spot and will be immediately eligible to participate in Branch affairs. Members outside London should join their local TASS branches and separate BDS branches will be formed when the numbers have grown. Ther will be, in due course, in addition to the London Branch, a National Advisory Committee to oversee the org- anising drive at national level and to provide a focus for regional Building Design Staff members who, as yet, have insufficient numbers to justify their own local branches. We have styled the conference-born committee "May 14 Unionisation Committee" as a means of distinguishing it from the old pre-conference committee and also from the London Branch Committee and the NAC. Clearly the member- ship and recruitment functions will be taken over by these latter bodies as soon as practicable but, in the meantime, we suggest you return the enclosed membership application form to the May 14 Committee at the above address (rather than direct to TASS) Conityirer Yours fraternally The conference was a success and we have been impressed by the efficiency and enthusiasm shown by all the TASS officials we have dealt with so far. The Committee is now working with TASS on the production of new recruiting literature and the TASS research dept. will soon be taking up some of the topics raised by the conference. It is important that we keep up this momentum and hope that you will join TASS as quickly as possible and begin the work of organising union recognition where you work. Join Tass now! where no other union is recognised. Keep the Committee informed of your workplace situation. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Unionisation Committee Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 26.5.77 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/eea59478269bd7d6f74519460afc1bae.pdf 9b5e162409b49f2066e0ad4722296688 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Architects' Journal Subject The topic of the resource TASS chosen as architects' union by NAM Description An account of the resource TASS chosen as architects’ union by NAM conference Why TASS? The main advantages of TASS were stated as being its | efficiency in recruiting and in providing technical back-up when needed: It is reputed to have the best research depart- ment of any union of its size. TASS, formerly DATA (Draughtsmen and Allied Techni- cians Association), has over 140 000 members which makes it the second largest white collar union in the private sector. Although part of the 1400 000 strong AUEW, TASS remains largely independent with its own finances, staff, headquarters and a large degree of autonomy over its own industrial and political policy. Architectural workers will be able to have their own branches within the union which will allow them a large amount of autonomy to develop in their own way. At All people employed in private sector offices in the building professions where no union is already recognised are urged to the same time they will retain the advantages of being in a join TASS: the Technical, Administrative and Supervisory large powerful union which will be capable of providing Section of the Amalgamated Union of Engineering Workers (AUEW). This is the recommendation of a special one-day conference on trade unionism in architecture and the allied building professions, sponsored by the New Architecture TASS considers it is already connected with the building in- Movement in London last Saturday. An organising committee has been instructed by the conference to make a recruiting drive. The decision comes after six months of debate and research into which union would be most suitable for architects and other allied workers. A committee set up by the New Archi- tectureMovement’sCongressinBlackpoollastNovemberhas sectionofUCATT tobetheobviouschoice;beingtheunion had negotiations with officials from ASTMS (Association of most firmly connected with the building industry. But speakers Scientific, Technical and Managerial Staffs), STAMP (Sup- pointed out that STAMP has extremely poor back-up facilities, ervisory, Technical, Administrative, Managerial and Profes- would be unable to provide much support for recruitment, sional section of UCATT), TGWU (Transport and General and that architectural workers could not have their own auto- nomous branches. Conference chooses TASS for private sector GO-AHEAD FOR DESIGN UNION muscle in the eventuality of industrial disputes. TASS also organises actively on the part of women who com- prise over 11 per cent of the membership. dustry through its link with the AUEW’s Construction Engin- eering Section and because of the several hundreds of em- ployees in building professions who are already TASS mem- bers; mostly architectural and engineering staff in industry. The decision of the conference to select TASS will come as a surprise to many people who would have expected the STAMP AMID growing calls for unionisation from private sector employees, TASS, the 160 000- member Technical, Administrative and Super- union should recruit among all among architectural staffs, and visory Section of the AUEW,, is to set up a “union the building professions. the widening gap between Most of the 70 participants private sector salaries and within the union”’ for building design staffs. at the conference were archi- conditions and those in the This action follows last Saturday's decision of a special tectural employees, but eng- public sector. Despite the NAM-sponsored conference of architectural employees ineering, quantity surveying — profession's declining work load, several architects present called to launch a trade union organising drive. and town planning were also complained of understaffing, A ten-person committee set engineering design and _ its represented. Salaried architects excessive overtime and the resultant decline in the quality of service provided for clients and users. up by the conference met on progress in organising pro- Monday evening with Harry fessional engineering consult- Smith, TASS National Organ- ancies. Meeting behind closed iser, to begin planning the doors in London, the confer- campaign. A London branch of ence chose TASS from options TASS for building design staffs which included ASTMS, EMA, will be launched at an open STAMP, TGWU, and forming meeting on May 31 at the New a new union. were in a clear majority, although several technicians and secretaries also partic- ipated. Less than half of those who attended were NAM members, and one of the organisers described the turn- out as the “tip of the iceberg.” Nearly all participants came in individual capacities, but the members employed in the ference rejected a NAM 145-member Staff Association Ambassadors Hotel. An Advis- ory Committee of rank-and-file In choosing TASS, the con- building professions will be set committee’s recommendation of Robert Matthew, Johnson- up to co-ordinate the organis- to set up an autonomous Marshall and Partners Edin- ing drive nationally. section within the TGWU but burgh office sent a delegate The conference considered endorsed the committee's view who reported that since its proposals to join building that organising should include inception last year, the unions but chose TASS largely al employees — professional, RMJMSA has been looking at on its record of organising technical and clerical — within the question of unionisation among white-collar staffs in the same union and that the with increasing interest. BD Reporter Discussion of priorities for union action centred on redun- dancies, declining real income Workers Union) and TASS. Detailed briefings were prepared by the committee on the advantages of each, and last Satur- day’s meeting was called specifically to decide on one union. Seventy people attended of whom 25 were NAM members. The majority were salaried architects in private practice. Despite a recommendation from the committee in favour of TGWU, a secret ballot clearly showed TASS to be the choice of the conference. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource ? Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/db09a3b3d0ba7b52d252341c14595953.pdf d63d06f459fb2f9ced6a628aa79abe5b Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Building Design Subject The topic of the resource Conference chooses TASS for private sector Description An account of the resource AU at INSIDE Feilden gets Rome post director of the International Centre for the Preservation and Recon- struction of Cultural Property one of the world’s top jobs in the field. The appointment, which was made by UNESCO, takes effect on July 1. Feilden will be based in Rome and will have an annual budget of £4 million. The centre is an organisation covering fietd of conservation. It carn Feilden, who is best known for iser, to begin planning the doors in London, the confer- who attended were NAM his work on St Pauls Cathedral campaign. A London branch of ence chose TASS from options members, and one of the York Minster and Norwich Cath- TASS for building design staffs which included ASTMS, EMA, organisers described the tum- edral, has been consultant architect will be launched at an open STAMP, TGWU, and forming out as the “tip of the iceberg.” tothecentrefortwoyears.HewillmectingonMay31attheNewanewunion Nearlyallparticipantscame end all his present commitments to Ambassadors Hotel. An Advis- in individual capacities, but the take the new post, including his ory Committee of rank-and file In choosing TASS, the con- RIBA Council membership which members employed in the ference rejected a NAM 145-member Staff Association terminates naturally in June building professions will be set committce’s recommendation of Robert Matthew, Johnson to the centre, Feilden told BD: ing drive nationally endorsed the committee’s view who reported that since Its “People must take a balanced view The conference considered inception last year, the ofconservation, and Ihope togive proposals to join building that organising should include RMIMSA has been looking at that view. You must always con- unions but chose TASS largely all employees — professional, unionisation {rom AMID. growing calls for the 160 000- BD Reporter private sector employees, TASS, member Technical, Administrative and Super- union should recruit among all the widening gap between visory Section of the AL EW, is to set up a “‘union the building professions. private sector salaries and Most of the 70 participants conditions and those in the at the conference were archi- public sector. Despite the Index COMMENT 2, News 3-7 and 36, News in Focus 8, Letters 9, Perspective 10, Scorpio 11, Week by Week 11, New prod- Bernard Fellden. research, trains specialists and Monday evening with Harry fessional engineering consult and secretaries also partic- and users. formulates international policy Smith, TASS National Organ- ancies. Meeting behind closed ipated. Less than half of those Shutter Doors Asked if he would be taking any to set up an autonomous Marshall and Partners Edin- personal conservation philosophy up to co-ordinate the organis section within the TGWU but burgh office sent a delegate sider whether the cost is justified on its record of organising technical and clerical — within the question of uniontsation Some things must be saved at all costs, others have to go.” Lords rule on defects THE House of Lords has ruled that a local council can be held responsible for building defects arising out of its own neg Figence, even if the faults are discovered more than six years after the time of the construction work In their potentially far reach- ruling last week on the case of Anns and Others v Merton Borough Council, the Lords dismissed the notion that a ving builders —until Lord Denning’s controversial judg me t in February last year on the Sparham-Sowter case See Infil, page 2. among white-collar staffs in the same union and that the with increasing interest Energy crisis i mae 7 critical YAWNING energy gaps restricted economic growth and warning message in the newly published report of the Work shop on Alternative Energy Stra! cs (WAES) ute of Technology Measures to be taken include mplementation ofconsen He is out of prison on measures, a shift away from oil and the development of coal his 12- and nuclear power on a massive scale let rs and ph Also in month Id grand-daughter V ‘overwhelmed” by the Jism in Architecture Is pabllshed this week. Page 27. tectural employees, but eng profession's declining work ineering, quantity surveying load, several architects present and town planning were also complained of understaffing, represented. Salaried architects excessive overtime and the ucts 28-31, Dateline 32, Reader A ten-person committee set engineering design and its were in a clear majority, resultant decline in the quality inquiry service 33, Appoint- up by the conference met on progress in organising prTo- although several technicians of service provided for clients ments 34-35, —————— ei -~- ae FRIDAY MAY 201977 No 347 Jane Holtz-Kay reviews this year’s crop of AIA Honor Awards. Pages 12-13. HDD profile Vic Tapner goes behind the scenes at the Housing Develop- ment Directorate, talks to the people who advise the policy makers and books at their research programmes. Pages 15-22 Discussion of prioritic union action centred on redun- Inside the Summer Exhibition dancies, declining real income Architecture Room at the Royal among architectural staffs, and Academy. Pages 6-7. ree brochuret The weekly newspaper for the building team Shades of Boullée. This uncharacteristic neo-classical scheme is designed by J “The right shutter at the right price,... ..at the right time” This action follows last Saturday's decision of a special NAM-sponsored conference of architectural employees called to launch a trade union organising drive. illnesses but according to his daughter was calls from wellwishers parole after serving three years of a seven-year sentence ih cture is Poulson’s ott japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa whose new book Merabe Conference chooses TASS for private sector GO-AHEAD FOR DESIGN UNION BERNARD Feilden, one of the country’s foremost conservation architects, has been appointed Wharf Road Industrial Estate, Pinxton, Notts NGIGGLE within the union”’ for building design staffs. a peak in world oil pr duction as early as 1983 are al part of a (Oe)Shutter DoorsLtd. The report was introduced by William Hawthorne on Telephone: Ripley 811081 Telex No Poulson home again claim can succeed only if it is | A HAGC ;ARD John Poulson was back with the family after being brought within six years of the | released from Lincoln Prison last week. His ghter Alice completion date (pictured left) told 8D he had received a “tremendous welcome [his time limit, stemming | from the locals his home in Carleton Gre Pontefract. “He from the interpretation of the | so gla 4 to be home he hasn't had time to sort anything out,” sh 1939 Limitation Act, had said, "He ot giving interviews for tal weeks — he's going to always been held to apply in| concentrate on getting better.” cases of alleged gence The 67-year-old Poulson is under medical treatment for yanous It follows three years »y experts drawn from governments, industry and academic institutions in the using countries. The ‘i Pater ly ‘Vel pan ariured top-quality terial S 7 these shutters tobe livered on tin project was directed by Carre Wilson at Massachusetts Instit ly high standard of ngineerit th equ h Jlapsible Gate \imal ntenar ” Fire D decorative Gril Jive an exce na ng and Internal Partitions, send ly like further detal Roller Shutters, Fol Forinstantinformationtick|14) onreaderinquirycard 377370 SHUTTERS NOTTM 2 BUILDING DESIGN, May 20. 1977 WhsWE == vers writer Bob Mater Building Design & published from Morgen Gramolan House, CakderwoodSieet, Woolwich, London SENS GOH (01.855 7777) Death wish so. One might use the word “inexplicable” to buildings, just to see how they work out In practice; and this would probably save a few red faces. recant”TM he said, “It may seem hard on the to describe the reasons why the American Institute of Architects should honour the I M Pei Hancock Building In Boston, or the Richard Meijer Bronx Development Boston had happened already. How often Following a House of Lords decision last week, architects, in- builder or the council surveyor that he may find himself sued many years after he has left the work, but it Center, except that it Is all too clear why these buildings were chosen. does one hear the accusation that ar- chitects are only Interested In what a building looks like? Can one say that the failures of building bear no relationship to architectural quality? If that Is the case, practically. One accepts we all make mistakes, that from time to time buildings do not operate as they should — just like cars, machines and acroplanes — but for pity’s sake don't will be liable for negli- gence long after leay- ing the site. John Parris looks at the reasoning behind this conclusion, holder that he should be without remedy, seeing that the surveyor passed the bad work and the builder covered it up and thus prevented it being discovered earlier.”” _ NewMaxpax gives you more for les. will be liable to be sued for wrongly decided. negligence long after they The case was settled before have finished their work it could reach the House of More quality in the cup, because every Maxpax cup contains only the finest Maxwell Ho ingredients, pre-measur and pre-packed invacuurn- sealed stacks So your More simple tomaintain.NewMaxpa setheingre alreadyin the c decision of the House of same principles. Lords last week. There were seven plaintiffs all of whom were the owners Merton Local Borough of 999 year leases of maison- Council v Anns and others ettes in a block at 91 Devon- was concerned with the shire Road, Wimbledon. position of a local council Only two of them, onc a Mrs employing a building O'Shea, were the original pur- inspector chasers of the leases at the But the position of pro» time when the maisonettes fessional men such as archi- were sold off on completion of fects and accountants was the building 15 years ago. The also discussed by their Lord- others had acquired their ships as was that of builders. NAME jright", he said “the damage action can only arise when the was when the foundations state of the building is such were badly constructed. The that there is present imminent period of limitation, six years, danger to the health or safety then began to run” of persons occupying it,”’ said In support of that, he Lord Wilberforce quoted Lord Justice Diplock But Lord Salmon did not in Bagot v Stevens Scanion endorse Lord Denning's view POSITION I COMPANY ADDRESS ° General Food: Tel: Banbury (C 1295) 4433 1OX16 7QU makes less necds less cle MoreSA torun.f new Maxpax achine doe sthe same rmachines. y tell mernoreaboutNewMaxpaxandarrange More choice \ of flavours Dealing with the argument raised by the council's counsel that if the action were allowed to succeed it would expose councils to endless claims over an endless period and six years from the time when that the period of limitation the building had been com- cold New M tea, white cofice, chocolate. beef chicken soup, orange and in capic |Maxpax cos would only start to run when cracks and defects appeared, |which might be many years |after the work was completed, pleted A unanimous House of Lords decided that the limi- tation period began to run when the defects first ap- lemon. So thi gf favourite drinks eg SS =SSSS eeee For instant information tick [2[/] on reader inquiry card Editor Peter Murray News editor Vic Tapner Chief reporer Perer Marsh Reporter Ted Stevens Publisher Stan Arnold Advertisment manager Tony Amokd Classified odvertisernent manager Poul Nudes Production manager Pauline Rogers Chief sub editor Jane Hute hings Jon Clare had elapsed since the drains were constructed and “the damage occurred on that date”, he said, retary Marion Frank empty because of major teething troubles; what thrilled the judges was the ‘elegant, subtle shaft’ and the “elegant con soclety. struction of aluminium and glass at a Would not the architects laugh if the pleasing and communal scale.” Very nice Pharmaceutical Society gave Its annual too — one would not argue that these are award to Thalidomide, or the dangerous desirable attributes for a building — but they only part of the story. Last year, however, Lord Denning changed his mind in the case of Sparham-Souter v Town and Country Develop- ments (Essex) Ltd and Ben- fleet U DC: Having thought itover time and again. ..I have come to the conclusion that when building work is badly done and is covered up, the cause of action does not accruc, and time does not 1° ot | and Company in 1964. In that that time began to run only maxpaX| casearchitectsweresuedforwhentheplaintiffknewofthe negligent supervision of damage, “The fact that the that it Is a view held by some, then the profession deserves the scorn and jeers of ONE sometimes wonders whether ar chitects are suffering from some kind of inexplicable death wish. Not, which might be more sensible, In the way of the lem ming who realising there are too many of his species jumps offa cliff, but stupidly. By publicising and compounding his errors he attempts to convince an already cynical public that ts disMluslonment was only thetip of the iceberg and that not only do the socalled top architects make well as looking nice, Is supposed to work let’ schemes (page 18-19) won ar- liabilit adhered to the other view, that appalling errors bat they also receive the It Is often sald that there Is a case for chitectural awards In the 50s and 60s? time started to rh when the highest praise from thelr peers for doing walting a few years before offering awards Now Is the season for the spring awards: work was done “but I now three- wheeler for the handicapped won the Car of Europe Award or the Alr Con- trollers Group gave a safety award to Tenerife airport? We in this country . Speaking at the RIBA earfler this yearJ Marston Fitch deseribed the Pel bullding as “the largest self-destruct sculpture In are not totally Innocent of awarding Negligence: begin to run, until such time the world.” It may also be the most elegant schemes of dublous practical merit. Many self-destruct sculpture In the world, but award winning schemes of the past have that’s no reason for giving It an ar turned up under headlines of technical chitecture award because architecture, as failure. Indeed, how many of the “hard to . as the plaintiff discovers that it has done damage, or ought with reasonable diligence, to have discovered it.” The AIA judges, however, did have the advantage of hindsight — the fallure In It matters not that the glass, the most important part of the bullding, kept falling out of the Boston tower; It matters not that the Bronx development bs still and It would seem from the AIA decision let's give them prizes. His Lordship then clearly considered that the case of the ARCHITECTS, building architect, Bagot v Stevens inspectors and contractors Scanlon and Company, was the Brick Development Association publish Its next week and the Concrete Society Awards come out the week after (the National Theatre Is, naturally enough, tipped to win). Let's hope all the projects chosen work, visually and spectors and builders would be harder on the house- Lords but the latest one, site, as the result of a Merton L B C, involves the and withdrawn from the The Limitation Act 1939 provides for claim in ordinary contract or in tort to be ground landlords and the extinguished six years after plaintiffs sued them because the cause of action accrued in February 1970 structural In contract the clause of movement began in the block, action accrues when the causing cracks in the walls breach of contract takes and sloping of floors and place. But in torts such as other defects. negligence it accrues not when It was alleged that these the wrongful act is done but occurred because instead of when damage results the 3ft foundations shown on Until last year it had been the plans and approved by well established law that in the the council the foundations case of defective workman- were only taken down to ship or careless supervision 2ft 6ins. Walcroft Property thedamagewasdonewhenCompanyLtddidnotdefend the defective workmanship the action, and undertook to took place do certain remedial work. The Master of the Rolls, The local council was also Lord Denning, expressly said sued for damages for negli- this in the Court of Appeal as gence on the basis that it had recently as 1971 in Dutton y either not inspected the Bognor Regis U D C. This foundations at all or if it had, was a case where the local by its building inspector, council had been sued for passed them, it had done so in negligence because its build breach of the local by-laws ing inspector had passed in- adequate foundations on an in-filled site and carelessly. No evidence about this was adduced because the case came before the courts on the preliminary issue as to whether or not the claim is statute barred. The writs were taken out in 1972, more than Lord Denning rejected it ‘I do not think that is peared in 1970. “The cause of defective drains and the judge damage went undetected held that they were not liable would not prevent the statute because more than six years running,” he said For some time he had leases by assignment, The builders, Walcroft Property Co Ltd, were still the Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource BD Reporter Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 20.5.77 https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/a64b71ec9052f10612d0c4a6649b3b72.pdf 2d52a43ce74c03c3d598dc9a85fb8faa Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource BDS News Subject The topic of the resource The first issue after NAM decision for TASS as the union for architects Description An account of the resource THENEWSOPFATHEPBUEILRDINGDESIGNSTAFPSECTIONOFTASS Inoue1 BDS news Will further growth of trade unionism in the building professions mean the end of “professionaliem"? Or is it long overdue recognition that most professionals in the British building industry are no longer their own bonsen and require effective union representation not only to achieve the economic security and control over thoir working conditions, which have always been considered vital to the professional role, but also to allow them to continue, in changed circumstances, to meet the professional's further obligations to society? While some ‘employer' professionals may contemplate trade unionionm in "their" offices with images of impeding doom and some ‘employee’ professionals may see it as salvation from the law of the jungle, one thing is certain: the whole question of trade unioniem is now taken «|de seriously by many more people than it was even five years ago. Mecrotary writing on juat MaytPaeenbonseane ecme “question tnenmmaa/77 Ps2<. ang finance (gewo rmecs: and controls, and tha Ling. book hat ca ve teaiea an ismie in the building professions is that whereas not only will situations in conflict with the Code of organised in strong unions traditionally the professional Conduct probably be fewer than they could begin to recapture Bath, Bedford, Bristol, Car was ansumed to be an indepen- has been imagined, but the dent practitioner, by now sone actual occurence of such some of their lost influence. Ss Cork, three-quarters of building professionals are salaried employees. Almost half of these work in the public sector and the continuing trend towaris larger offices employees, mont of the pro- in the private sector also fessional codes of conduct suggests that despite all etill appear to have been myths and desires, fewer and written by and for the fewer people entering the building professions will spend much of their careers as principale. Much of the recent growth of trade union organisation and of professionals and the The sight of the building situations is very unlikely". industry continually taking the brunt of spending cuts Despite the fact that the avoided by industries with building professions are now stronger union organisation made up overwhelmingly of only encourages this view. t is in this climate of opinion that a Building Desim Steff section was forned within TASS with its ow branches and its om ons] minority of ezployer and self employed practitioners. It is probably inevitable that Advisory Comittee, in these will change. They give this structure, the organisi- little guidance to people with tion of staff in each office the training and expectations is the key unit, for it is professional militancy must stem from the desire to win back salary and status differentialswhich,especiall:mostrealisticpathoutof affectthematwork. in a period of inflation and position of salaried staff. Many employed professionals are beginning to think that the voice in all matters which only by organising to ther that building professionals will be able to have a real recrultme en printed, and the possible circulation is 7 eroded by better organised consequent democratisation of ive role in the office. To do b @ organised. The leaflet r Banunl workers. But in- practice. And although the this, it mist recruit simifi- creasing concer about job professional institutes have cant pimbers so that it can satisfaction “industrial traditionally been regarded seek official and legal on their professional leaving aside an understandabl sresponsibility to serve the opposition from most employer public interest. professionals, many employee architects, engincers, Torn between trying to be surveyors and planners still learned societies, employers this frustrating dilema is via h incomes policy, have been trade union organisation and EDS aims to play a construct- wi democracy” and the decline in as the defenders of profess- recognition for nesotiating public credibility and status ional values, cases are aris— rights over pay and conditions of the professions may also be ing in which only trade wuion in as many offices as possible contributing to changed backing has protected attitudes towaris organisation employees who have acted have a vague feeling that there is something unprofeas- ional about trade unionian. Nightmares of outside inter vention, leftwing control, closed shop battles, conflicts to young professionals, between union activity and steadily slipping. codes of professional conduct and adoline of professional Advocates of unionisation standards seem to be grounded argue also that in 1977, To this end EDS has launched @ massive recruitment campsim An integral part of this campaign will be the regular production of thir newspaper. Its purpose will be to keep the whole menbership informed of all BDS activities and to provide a forum for discussion of relevant socia? and more in fantasy than in reality. To quote Patrick Harrison, RIBA permanent the "independent professional” National Organiser, AUEW-TASS io already largely a myth, Onslow Hall, Littie Green, considering the influence Richmond, Surrey TW) 1GN. Harry Smith, TASS National Organiser six associations and representa- tives of increasingly frag- mented professions, institutes environmental iemves as well have seen their effectiveness as campaign for better pay and attraction, especially and conditions. Comments and suggestions and articles for future issues will be most welcome. These should be sent to Harry Smith, A massive national Bent campaign is bei g laur eautumn amongst building S recruitment lea i at Intert t lar TASS Head and has begt and challenging task organising itional recruit- ment drive in the K. DESIGN It well ctural fices. "Design shouldn't be _ the satisfaction of popular and low exhaust hybrid drive systems; vibrationles afraid toask this? up a “sodel” Contract of Employment. It is hoped that this effort will help lead to an inprovenen it in the pay and conditions of salaried members in the building professions. done behind closed doors..-it the production process at eumatic-tyred rail/road alvays prepared to come out withic. towards industry if the engin- eers that are trained are quicklymaderedundant,” Put in a broad economic context, these proposals were publishedbythecombineas a Corporate Plan for Lucas ~ only to be rejected out of hand by its management. between employees of a similar Status within the sane office. that parts of itought to be strengthened or would just than 150 suggestions for wockatiy © wh ctsweresubmitted’ Benefits ae needs, but also for making should involve the workforce Lucas more creative — and for vehicles capable of climbing othe: r parte of the Contract neoq not be written but verbal agros. ments in addition to any condition which has been adhereq to by an employee over a periog of time can become an inplied part of the contract. which makes the products that 1-in-6 inclines, wind power result from On it, and the people the maintenance of full bobcarts for who have to use them". employment in its factories apparatuses; r r dimensions of design is hard will fall apart tvo years to find. But Mike Cooley is from now? Why direct educatic braking units. The Statonent of Terms and Conditions of Employment is part of the individual Contract o¢ Employmentanditscontentig legally binding on the indivig. ual employee and can of courne be enforced by the Courts. Beware of Contracts which exceed the minimum requirements a these documents are often 8 Employment and it is intended hours and overtine, holiday entitlement, redundancy procedutes| and terms, étc. and offices. The main principle was, as Cooley puts it, "Why use frantic, children gippled with spina bifid lar energy G the full conditions of explo: responsibilities both of emp’ In the private sector, Contract of Employment outlinin, of Exployment has been published wo an to atimlate In this country at least, such a verbal mixture of trade union militancy and demeaning and alienating appreciation of the social labour to make products that gas fired heat pumps an Former national presid- ent of TASS, he works as 4 senior design engineer at Lucas aborated together and refined Aerospace. Backed by the their ideas util 12 distinct multi-union Lucas Aerospace product lines emerged. The For Cooley the point of the us. to form the basis of specific ed during the first year of pension scheme should state Head Office. Combine Conmittee, Cooley bias was largely towards the initiators of a alternative, labour intensive exercise is to fight redundan- cles constructively; to convince 14,000 factory sweeper! skilled craftsmen and science PhD's that the system's failure) crammed with so much detail that, if the employee does sign they can give his omployer excessive and unjustified 1ogar power over him. Even if the Statemont is not signed and i¢ the "Statement of Main Terms the employee accepts a contract (which includes party to which s/he does not agreo) without objection and carrios on working under it, a Court nay decide after a period of time that the clauses in question had become an imp1- fed part of the Contract. Under Contract Law it is clearly laid down that the contents of any contract must be mutually agreed between the es aoe issueadocumentcontaining shouldbedescribedinan Theminimumnoticerequired make the employee redundant, then compensation will be paid to the employee according to length of service and age The Licas employees coll— to support non-exploitive when the high technology domestic ones. Since then, production and useful products first year , and will rise by a) Conditions of schene one day's paid holiday for mombershi| each year of employment up to b; Whether membership of the @ maxinun of seven wooks' holi scheme 1s or is not representative. The payment will be based on the following scale firm was reeling from the rising public concern about blows of oil price rises and energy has shifted the follows not just from misguided defence industry rationalis- emphasis towards products policies but from the nature compulsory c Whether the employee will Should the employee believe that the grievances have not been resolved in a satifactory way, the grievances may be raised again by the exployee at @ meeting of the partners. The employee will receive rea- salary per month of exploynent ations. After writing ~ without success - to 180 experts’ which use ray materials and of society. consume pover. sparingly. and Conditions of Employment" referred to in the Contract of Employment Act. day. 3.2 The annual paid holiday ts in addition to all public holidays. be required to contribute to the scheme, and the basia of calculation and rates of contribution. Where the employee can obtain further details of sonable notice of this necting the ucheme (preferably in ¢aDte wrheipcrhesesnhte/dhe bymaya cthoiordse to an appendix to the Contrac party. 15.1 The minimum payment is six weeks salary for up to six sonths employnent rising at the rate of a third of a weeks The range of products is tions about what they impressive; it includes zo The Model Contract contains sone clauses which should be used as they are written, and 3.3 sone descriptions of clauso: Should this employment cease The latter appear in square for any reason the employee brackets. telechiric devices (remotely and the like, the controlled sea bed and fire- shop stewards turned to their fighting equipment); silent . up to eight weeks salary after @ year of e=ploynent. For every subsequent six months of ‘employnent, one week's salary is added to the compensation The payments relating to the period of employment when the employee is aged forty years OFOverAmincreasedbyone document which is freely avail should be stated. EXPENSES able to all employees. This document should not contain 3.5 71 any additional conditions of Additional unpaid holiday can The employee will be reimbursed re employment as such, but should be arranged with the enployer. for reasonable expenses incur- ficient reason to terminate 15.2 merely be explanatory. colleagues in the 17 plants covered by the combine. The nse was astonishing. The provisions governing The first 25S-EDS branch was front. Tho aim however is and relaxed atmosphere. reports from and discussion of menbers offices as woll as The branch is probably the only individual problems (non The Branch is now able, in conjunction with the full-time TASS Divisional Organisers to will be given to all employe 2.0 NORMAL HOURS OF WORK ‘TRAINING The employee will be insured taking office, at any approp- 14.1 ise fae aha re8 a, collectors on car roofs = designed fo recharge batteries; The research group will soon be making further and core detailed recommendations ove such key issues as pay policy, its 6 months of existence with on trade union interests, but euch regular forum available menbers are welcome to these provide speakers for office 15.6 menbers in over 25 central London practices, to be a more effective force in the local TASS Division by concentrating on the one area where we have a special knowledge and ability. to building design staff in London and the list of topice for discussion and further research io lengthy; these Anelude a model contract of exployment, redundancies ani orientated towards the bread personal property in the The normal working hours amount course of this employment. PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT 9.1 The employee is expected to adopt a responsible attitude towards confidential inform- ation gained through this employment. : partners. for six months after the edundancy notice expires, It has develéped a forn unique both in building design emi in TASS, Unique design professions, its efforts are directad to this Wutlding design etaff can specific area‘rather than @iseuss mutual problems and the wider political /industrial_ plan action in a responsive Although the work of the Branch at present is to 35 hours per week. 2.2 14.2 Paid leave for taking examin- mence paynent at the rate of All you wanted to weeks pay for redunda paym ent, a minimum 4 and more... Wages B, When Paid Fours D, Holidays Holiday Pay 3 know about | Ss yo your r Contract cts buf were ontraci Compare This proposed model Contract @ public discussion on the many people employed in the Moreover, Sicknes Pensions Periods of Notice Job Title These conditions form the mini- mum Statement of Terms and onditions of Employment. In addition the following terms can be included:~ J. Disciplinary rules ‘The branch has also developed the current ithousing and butter iasues ofpay and For further information please The actual hours of work (flexitime or fixed hours of 6.0 PENSIONS ations is allowed as recoa- mended by the appropriate professional body. 15.0 REDUNDANCY 40% of the employces's salary and continue payment until ahe/he finds employment. This Payment,whichismadeinad- dition to the original comp- ensation, is limited to 40% sessions). 2.1 rhen the employer will com- t @uniqueroleasaformforbapa forhousinglegisla~conditions,it{aintendedto\contacttheSecretaryat work)aretobeagreedand 6.1 monthly ‘seminars’ in which on. There is aleo time sot aside at these monthly meetings for encompass the wider mocial and environment 4 Highshore Road, London SB15 SAA. stated in the contract. 3.0 HOLIDAYS A contracting-out certificate is/is not in force for this branch to activies Servi ployment (not relevant until 10.0 6th April 178)- of the original redundancy If, after appropriate consult- compen: tion. clauses that the employee has not agreed. The fact that in the building professions, contracts have been altered without the consent of the employees involved, points to the wenk- ness of the individual in this position and the in- effectiveness of the profess- ional institutions in protecting their snlaried officehandbookorsimilarbeforeaholidayistaken7.0 =~Theemployeeplaceofworkquarter. The name and description members. Some of the clauses of tho person to whon included in the BDS nodel the employee applies if contract are RIBA recommendations s/he is dissatisfied with which have been researched and a disciplinary decision accepted by that institution, 8.1 Written notice gf termination of exployment shall be . by the employee, and . 12,1 The exployee's 12.2 The employee is responsible eee or has a grievance, but not im nted by its employer members. Individually, it is often dift- icult if not impossible to amend a Contract of Employment, however building design employees organised together in 1. Annual time payments should be explained. over- and 4.3 minimum notice to an employee required by law is one week 12.3 after four or more weeks’ emp- The employee is responsible for ®/nisum notice, whilst under How to make such an application, Explanation of what further steps can be taken 1.2 Overtime work should be by mutual agreement. 4,2 furnish a medical sertificate two years, with one additional ing positions . redundancy payment will be the same as though she/he had continued to be e=ployed until the end of the redund- ancy notice. This Statement of Terms and Conditions given to employees an office can effectively is not in itself a Contract but Te-negotiate their contracts its contents form part of the and maximise the benefits to Contract of Employment. The both parti 4.3 Rate of pay for overtime work ‘The employee is required to weeks' notice after twelve years or nore. AMENDMENTS 13.1 1. Thia {8 a model Contract of 3.1 6.2 10.1 individual contracts between employers and employees in Building Design Professions. It 18 not to be confused with enploynent will be ..... weeks the following: minimun four weeks in the 3. The actual procedure for ment. scheme benofits payable in L11O:C0ATION the event of retirement, ill-health or death, 1.3 . 41 Tho omployor will continue to pay tho full salary during absence through sickness or injury up to a maxinum of 8 weeks in any period of 12 months. This payment is sub- Ject to the conditions in 4.2 by the employer. Note : the tose Name of Employer Name of Employee Date Terns of Employnent become applicable Date continuous Employment commenced. 4.0 SICKNESS OR INJURY red in carrying out her/his duties within the limits set out in the offi¢e handbook. salary, excluding Should the employee give his The employee is required to loyment, and two weeks after other employees in the follow = redundancy notice, then the for absence exceeding three consecutive days. week's notice for each further year's employment up to twelve 13.0 like to make gone general isoften comments,pleasegetintouch m the SubjectpleasegetintouchwithHarrySn!ithattheTASS 8.0 RIGHTS: 15.5 rate with the option of taking ing any sickness benefit from Trade Union : The employee set out in this contract cannot If the employee is made red- shall be 14 times the basic assist the employer inrecover- 8.2 The conditions of esployment time off in lieu at the discretion of the employee. the Dopartnent of Health and has the right to belong to a be amended except by mutual Undant and is a member of a Social Security. registered trade union of her; agreenent. Faflure to reach private pension scheme rel- with fon, Itisfor ‘The annual paid holiday allow- A goneral description of the If the employee has any ations it {8 still necessary ¢ grievances relating to this employment, they should be raised in the first instance with either the employer or by the employees office will be paid salary in liew of any unused holiday entitie- the type and level of his choice, or not to belong agreenent cannot be sufficient *ting to this employment then 5.0 to one or any similar organ- reason to terminate this exp- she/he ay elect to receive 1.4 A salary review will be made ACCIDENTAL INJURY, LOSS OR isation. Should the employee loynent. TM refund of all contributions that she/he has paid into the schene, less income tax plus an equivalent contribution from the employer. twice a year. Adequate notice DAMAGE of a pending salary review choose to join a trade union she/he may take part in trade union activities, including 14.0 riate tine. death, and against damage to 9.0 for the amoun against personal injury or Tine is allowed for training by specific agreement with the f the employee is unemployed will be (the euployers’ office). The place of work cannot be altered except by Fetual agreesent. Failure to this contract 12.0 JOB TITLE The maxinua compensation pay- able is seventy five week's salary The length of employment upon which the compensation is based is up to the end of the period of notice 15.3 The salary upon which the com- pensation payment is based is the e=ployee's salary prior to the termination of the period of notice 15.4 ach agreement cannot be suf- Alook at aTASS unioni$ed industry WHAT THEY DIDATLUCAS — pushesfor the 35 hourweek, overtime Howdo Contracts of Enploynent Legis~ lotion has had a chequered history. The original Act assed by the Conservatives 4 1963 and subsequently snended by the 1964-70 Labour Govern= nent. Later the Tories passed further amendments. By now the Act had boon chopped and changed #o auch that it was re- written, including within it all tho alterations and re~ enacted in 1972. When Labour returned to power again, the 1972 Act was amended by the Trade Union and Labour Relation Act 1974 and the Employment Protection Act 1975. ional groups including architects, engineers, a r& employed in the public sector have for yment and other basic rights and loyees and employers. however, building professions have no such standard document,and}even conditions and pay vary enormously between offices Tf you or your collegaues have any comments to make ot A sound contract mutually agreed between two parties a crucial factor in achieving job satisfact this reason that a TASS-BDS research group has begun drawing was one of £ a radical strategy for diversif- technologies - particularly ication of Lucas's products those suited to Third World back in the winter of 1974 applications as well as Tho Contract of Employment Act requires employers to give enployees documents informing them of the terms of their employment. Within it are included the following mections:~ OFF WHAT THE LONDON BRANCH IS UP TO... im of organised intrade unio’ decisions which affect t determined by em on that only by sites Why TASS? n staff in the private sector are Broader the anches, the ai nua input: * education of all the con- a few years because of the fierce opposition from mos? lobbies within the con- struction industry. 4 fl are joining the general TIecal authority direct labour * there should be greator organisations should also be incentives for technical extended to run as ‘mmicipal competence related to graded enterprises’ able to compete indemity insurance premia; with private contractors for * nenthetic quality should all jobs in their area contin- ues the paper. Nor are the construction professions excluded from the NEC's broad canvas. ‘The professional contribution largely determined the opportunity for contractor efficiency and the client's value for money they argue, suggesting a four-point programe of reforms crucial to improving the professional te put before Parliament for onaland ational » of the union and y 45 experience ack-up stafl a d »only at their general election, it is un- likely that legislation will throughout Britain TUC WANTS TO SOME LARGE CONSTRUCTION commnies should be nation- alised to provide an effect- ive public stake in the construction industry, arguen tho hands of the professional a strongly worded new paper by institutes; the Labour Party's policy forging National Executive Committoo. * there should be a statutory body to improve matters re- lating to contracts and disputes; boost direct author ; partment was appreciat growing Gover represented no amount if the i and showed nt concern, but like the t required to survive. REVERSE TREND Unanimous support for city areas in general, and a p reversal of Govern- further £300 million in civil 8 towards construct engineering projects. m the TUC Congress n of had a demand for a restoration of the expenditure cuts projected for 1978 and 1979. The motion also demanded initiati e and planned > imme of public ks to reduce unemployment e a mich needed There haa" been sone CovErn— ment response in the Budget executive an immediate inje £1,100 mill to re the ival of the Mr. Fre S announ ent of industry. He coupled this with£30 million for public sector § a first step r and house improvements in the recent construction industry debate in the Commons and a further £100 million had been made available since then. The total of £230 million struction industry should be controlled by one central orgnnisation, such as the CITS, and not fragmented in be improved by holding more design competitions. * QS 5 must develop more sophisticated methods of cost control. Although theese proposals were accepted at the Labour Party's Conference in October into the official party programe for the next for an ext ‘for inner £100 construct4 m this financial liams said that it d that by next year The Government may have been industry would have lost roused i ers, but more than a quarter of its as yet it is hardly awake to ment workf , not from the full consequences of a the Lump but of skilled collapsed building industry. f n who had trained for, ce in, a once The motion was seconded by J.Kooyman, Furniture, Timber and Allied Trades Union, who said trend must be reversed "No plans for long term recovery T had set out its this country will succeed > go ina without providing manufacturing "Let us Build’ calling industri ith modern purpose— a £300 million investment built factories”. e building, £500 million proving sub-standard The Building Design Staff section of TASS was set up at the request of staff from throughout Britain who met at an independent conference on 14 May, 1977 to decide on one Union within which to organise. They chose TASS because of its record as an effective union for design staff in engineering plus the strength and quality of the support TASS can offer TASS is tho union for al people employed in private sector offices In architecture, surveying, eoring and planning sultancies, Industry and commerce, oF the voluntary sector . A London Building Design Branch of TASS has stablished and is rapidly growing. Outside ,building design anch in their| y. As more and more join TASS, similar Bui g Design branches will vec be setup in other areas. Mombers are kept In t nal Advisory Committee of bers employed In building design. .whether in Conference Reports TASS the union for al the BUILDING PROFESSIONS TASS isthe only effective union in which million-member AUEW. Another section of the AUEW represents 35,000 workers on construction LABOUR WANTS TO NATIONALISE How does TASS work? Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource TASS Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated 1977 ? https://nam.maydayrooms.org/files/original/062cc69005d64cce5ce3281cd7bffa1c.pdf dd62b3513adb4ccd8b109ea899be2df5 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Trade Unions and Architecture Description An account of the resource Themes included action on asbestos and Health &amp; Safety, and involvement with Direct Labour Organisations and Building Unions. Following comparative research of possible options, NAM encouraged unionisation of building design staffs within the private sector, negotiating the establishment of a dedicated section within TASS. Though recruitment was modest the campaign identified many of the issues around terms of employment and industrial relations that underpin the processes of architectural production. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource TASS-BDS Subject The topic of the resource Some Ideas for its Development Description An account of the resource TASS Building Design Staffs branch ~ some ideas for its development . Although trade unions offer its members fringe benefits, the core of a trade union is the willingness of its members to make collective deci- sions and for all to abide by them . This will be somewhat abstract until we are in a position in one office tospeak and act on behalf of the work- place . Only when members can succesfully take on an employer, and through collective action obtain what would not have otherwise been possible , will we be in a position to show building design staffs in general that trade unionism is essential for them . We should place a lot of emphasis cn building at those workplaces where we already have members . Members should not simply try to sign up more menbers, but to consistently talk to other employees, with a wiew to establishing office meetings, evem if not everyone is in the Union. Although it might be a bit premature, it would be a good idea if each office elected a shop steward (or correspondingmember), to be responsible for keeping in contact with the branch, to collect dues, and to ensure that he or she regularly kept in touch with members in the office about Union matters . Whilst office meetings are necessary to involve as many workers as possible, and to discuss their particular grievances, the monthly Branch meeting is the democratic core of the branch . The Branch should elect an Executive Committee whose role woud be the servicingof the membership individually and collectively . Committee members should be allocated areas on top of their organisational responsabilities (treasurer, scretary,...) The Committee is to prepare the agenda of the Branch meetings and carry out the decisions of the Branch promptly . The first task of this Committee is the establishment of the London Branch . Its subsidiary role,in conjunc- tion with the May 14th Unionisation Committee, is to advise nationally on possible recruitment outside of London, and to promote a survey of pay and conditions to offer a material aid to members in dispute . General research should be done around the following points . * A study of pay and contions in the Public Sector to bring up the Private Sector to that level at least . * a figure for a nationally negotiated minimum wage ($70 p.w.e. is the pre- sent national average) to protect trainees against low pay . * Deceht overtime rates to be included in the contract of employement, and notice eeofjobs(againsttherightofemployerstogiveonemonth's Although there might be 500 architectural workers in private firms unio- nised, in general trade unionism is foreign to architectural offices . There are Msny reasons for this - including the relative mobility from one firm to another, the traditional nature size of most effices which encourages personal thanto other employees . But these factors union membership has never been higher, has been amongst white collar workers, particularly women . At some point each office will have to face up to gaining recognition, implicitly or explicitly, form the employer . We must take care that a confrontation is not precipitated before support of a substantial proportion of the workers . This is likely to be done on those points which unite everyone . The key to building an effective branch is across the board membership - collective action requi- res maximum unity - and we should not get bogged down in considering the differences between the various types of building dewign staffs (we don't want to produce several different leaflets to'appeal' to different categorie of the profession, the small loyalty to the boss rather are not immutable . Trade and the most spectacular growth we have at least the passive * A study of pay and conditions of Agency staff . We could then argue for their to secure and decent employment . The ‘closed shop' should be used to make agreements with employers to control the work contracted out 2 In general, we hope to be strong enough tobuila trade union which can represent the workers on all questiens affecting their work , and to veto any plans by the aprtners which harm the interests of our member- ship and other working people . «.A National Design Service to provide decent building design for ail based on need . This to be done in chnjunction with a nationalised buil~ Ging industry . 2) Wages . This branch is opposed to wage restriants . To improve our wagess, we should fight for : - the establishment of a national minimum wage , to protect the low paid . - Pay should not be eroded by inflation, at a minimum wages should be automatically guaranteed, - Across the board increases to improve the real value of wages . ~- Equal pay for women with no regrading of jobs . 3) Unemployent . This branch is opposed to ali forms of redundancies, wether compulsory or through ‘natural wastage' . To protect our members’ and other workers jobs we sheuld fight for : > Work sharing with no loss of pay to maintain jobs .» ~ the opening of books of firms creating redundancies, or not providing decent working conditions . ~ No subsidies, nationalisation of firms creating redundancies - - A programme of useful public works to create jobs . General policy motions .« 1) This branch is opposed to the social contract . It was sold to the labour movement as a guarantee to maintain jobs and the social wage in return for pay restraints . Insteed we see nearly 2 million unemployed savage cuts in the go gal services, We therefore support rede unionists who oppose a further round of the social contract . and prices racing ahead of wages oe . Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource TASS-BDS Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived John Allan Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated 1977