IT GAVE me very great pleasure this week, at the Usdaw annual delegate meeting in Blackpool’s Winter Gardens, to be able to announce that applications for our new Black Members Development Programme are now officially open. 

This is a new start for a continuing and hugely significant journey for our union, as we seek to overcome the under-representation of black members in our movement. 

Like most other unions, black members in Usdaw are under-represented in union roles and at union events. Around 17 per cent of our members are black and they are not always as visible or as rooted in our structures as they could be. 

If black members were accurately represented, we would expect them to occupy at least 17 per cent of roles and make up just under a fifth of members attending regional and national events. However, despite making progress over recent years we still have some way to go. 

Therefore, we want to encourage more black members to step forward so Usdaw properly reflects our wider membership. 

Improving the representation of black members is not only the right thing to do, it is necessary to ensure that they have the same opportunities to develop and reach their full potential; and we reflect the workers we are organising by being relevant, welcoming and taking up the issues that matter to black workers. That is how we grow and strengthen the union.

The term “black” includes any member who is at risk of racism and of being treated less favourably because of their skin colour. This term therefore includes a wide range of members with Asian, African and Caribbean, Chinese identities and those of mixed heritage or multiple ethnicities.

There are a number of reasons for the under-involvement of black members in the union, and one of the most significant is lack of role models. 

I know that too many of our black members have been at an Usdaw event and they will have been, if not the only black member in the room, certainly one of very few. As the saying goes: if you can’t see it, you can’t be it.

So, for many of our black members the lack of visible role models is a significant obstacle that stands in the way of them becoming more active in our union. 

We cannot stand by and do nothing when many black workers look at the trade union movement and think that’s not a place where they belong. 

This is not just an issue of racial justice, or equality and fairness; it is also about the health and vitality of the union movement. 

If we are failing to engage black workers as they seek to become more active and engaged in the union; then we are undermining our ability to organise and to build trade union power in the workplace.

Usdaw has a long history of promoting race equality and taking positive action to address under-representation. 

Going right back to the setting up of the Race Relations Committee in the mid-1980s, we have always tried to find ways to reach out to our black members. 

For example, in 2006 Usdaw set up equality forums regionally and nationally with seats for black members. We have for many years also organised an annual Black Members’ Weekend Workshop. 

Although this Black Members’ Development Programme is a new initiative, it represents a continuation and acceleration of our existing approach. 

Many other unions are running similar programmes and we are all being supported by the TUC. We are proud that Usdaw’s is recognised as one of the most ambitious.

Our Black Members’ Development Programme is designed to help address the under-representation of black members in Usdaw’s structures and at union events and conferences. 

The programme seeks to give black members the support they need to become more involved in the union by developing their skills and understanding of Usdaw and the wider union movement; build a support network of black activists to help build membership by encouraging and supporting black members to be proactive in their workplaces.

It is my personal hope that black members will see this as a stepping stone for their greater involvement in the union. That it will help them develop skills to enable them to feel fully at home in the trade union movement and that this will contribute to building a support structure for black activists in Usdaw.