by Conrad Landin
Industrial Reporter
FILM and theatre workers with Bectu will merge into professionals’ union Prospect, it was announced yesterday.
A Bectu members’ ballot saw 83 per cent support the merger on an 18 per cent turnout.
The move follows concerns over Bectu’s staff pensions deficit, which its general secretary Gerry Morrissey had said would “continue to hold the union back” if it stayed independent.
The Bectu name will be preserved as Prospect’s biggest sector — taking in communications workers already within the professionals’ union.
Mr Morrissey said: “The pooling of our resources and experience with those of our new colleagues in Prospect will enable Bectu to provide an even better service for members.”
The move had already been overwhelmingly endorsed at Bectu’s conference, though some members expressed concern that Prospect was “right wing.”
Bectu’s affiliations to the Labour Party and CND will now be dropped — but support for other organisations, such as the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, will continue.
The Star also understands that some members are concerned film and theatre producers will pay less respect to a general union.
But Prospect leader Mike Clancy said: “This result is the best possible news for both sets of members and follows two years of extensive negotiations.
“The two unions have much in common, not least in our expertise in the fields of communications and media and we will quickly adapt to working together, with both organisations being the product of previous successful mergers.”
The merger will take effect on January 1 2017.
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