13th December 2009, 03:23 PM
In my experience it is not that archaeologists are too laid back to join a union I would say that it is one of the two following reasons:
The first is simply fear - there is a bizarre belief amongst some archaeologists, particularly those in the earliest stages of thier career that they should be gratefull to a company for employing them. No matter what this company does to them they keep their heads down for fear of being singled out as a trouble maker.
An example of this was when I worked on a huge pipeline job in Wales a fw years ago. There must have been close on a hundrd archaeologists working for two companies on this job and i thought it would be the ideal time to seriously think about about unionising a large proportion of the workforce. I aranged for a union rep to come to wales and talk to everyone outside work and we sorted travel out toget people to and from this meeting. In the end only ten even turned up to listen to talk with the majority thinking that it would get them into trouble if the company found out. If when you lay it out on a plate and all they have to do is turn up then what can you do?
The second is the most irritating - its the defeatist notion which aflicts so much of british commercial archaeology. They wont join as they dont believe that the union can do anything contnuing the vicious circle that without members then it is difficult to act but as they dont act then members are not attracted!!
Utill archaeologists snap themselves out of the mindset that many are in then unfortunately very little progress will be made.
BAJR is a fantastic organisation and has done a lot to help me in the past (and even gotten me into a wee bit of trouble) but we cannot rely on it to sort out our problems. At the moment theres plenty of talk but how can we expect David to stand up for us but when he turns round for supprt all scuttle back into the shadows and hide!!
!
The first is simply fear - there is a bizarre belief amongst some archaeologists, particularly those in the earliest stages of thier career that they should be gratefull to a company for employing them. No matter what this company does to them they keep their heads down for fear of being singled out as a trouble maker.
An example of this was when I worked on a huge pipeline job in Wales a fw years ago. There must have been close on a hundrd archaeologists working for two companies on this job and i thought it would be the ideal time to seriously think about about unionising a large proportion of the workforce. I aranged for a union rep to come to wales and talk to everyone outside work and we sorted travel out toget people to and from this meeting. In the end only ten even turned up to listen to talk with the majority thinking that it would get them into trouble if the company found out. If when you lay it out on a plate and all they have to do is turn up then what can you do?
The second is the most irritating - its the defeatist notion which aflicts so much of british commercial archaeology. They wont join as they dont believe that the union can do anything contnuing the vicious circle that without members then it is difficult to act but as they dont act then members are not attracted!!
Utill archaeologists snap themselves out of the mindset that many are in then unfortunately very little progress will be made.
BAJR is a fantastic organisation and has done a lot to help me in the past (and even gotten me into a wee bit of trouble) but we cannot rely on it to sort out our problems. At the moment theres plenty of talk but how can we expect David to stand up for us but when he turns round for supprt all scuttle back into the shadows and hide!!
!