Dan Shears GMB National Health and Safety Dept. 13 th July 2010

 General Trade Union  Currently over 610,000 members  Just over 50% work in the public sector  Nine Regions  3 Sections

 strategy sees the workplace reps as the best qualified to represent members at local level…  … and places the rep at the heart of union activity in the workplace.  General Secretary Paul Kenny instigated the annual Daniel Dennis H&S Representative of the Year award at annual GMB Congress

GMB Publications “ Using H&S as an organising tool” (2006) Other dedicated H&S publications dedicated to sectoral interests, Retail, Waste, Schools, Care Homes

Real case studies of GMB Safety Reps in action:  ASDA – Northern region rep who pushes H&S on the Agenda in Asda stores  Worcester County Council – Birmingham region rep who ensured physical attacks were taken seriously by employer ion lone working

 North West region rep in Court services who ensured regular cleaning and maintenance of vehicles  Southern Region rep who helped establish national H&S committee and examined strategy for lone security guards in G4S

 Midland rep who used English language courses to inform migrant workers on safety issues  Birmingham rep who used an assault on one of his members to initiate campaign on redesigning the working environment in CVIT

 Southern region rep who used the “Safeguard” campaign against security officer attacks to get better H&S and sick pay  London region rep who used Workers Memorial Day to organise in ASDA

 All of these examples have much in common- principally dedicated reps using workplace H&S problems to demonstrate the importance of trade union membership and growth.  GMB training emphasises the importance of the SRSC regulations – these reps do the hard part – putting them into action!

 Thank You for your time  Any Comments or Questions?  For more info: