3rd December 2008, 10:54 PM
With the DF you don't have to join the IFA to get a mandate for site staff within the IFA. You just pay £5. Easy.
If you are signing on you can get your union subs dropped to a lower rate. IFA I don't think you can as appears to be based on previous years salary. I imagine I'll have to find out soon as all my work has dried up.
So for about 76 quid a year (less if you are on the dole for a bit) you get to be in the union, and have a voice in the IFA. I agree 'about £300' would be a fair chunk of a diggers wage, except the rate I pay to the IFA isn't based on a digger's wage, but as a freelance specialist, and at MIFA rate. The IFA website is still down so I can't get the exact figures for a typical non-London digger, but anyway its less than £4 a week, I didn't want to give a guess, so I gave the cost of my subs.
You talk in another post about needing 'strength and unity to achieve', well the union, and the DF, and indeed the iFA would get a lot more done if everyone stopped saying 'what has it done', got those rogue units unionised and pulled together to improve things and keep them improved. I don't know where you work, or how long you been working but I've spent the last 10+ years digging in London, the union didn't get me huge pay rises as my employer was restricted by DCMS, it did however get me other rights, negotiated higher rises than otherwise, sorted out loads of personal issues that could have ended my career, defended me against disciplinary, saved a load of jobs at the last redundancy round, and before, got a benchmarking exercise, sorted equipment, stay-away, mileage and travel allowances, had a team of dedicated volunteer officials to go to when anything went wrong or seemed unfair, and a load more. Who else is going to do that for you in your organisation? and make sure it stays improved? Yeah we thought central office was too soft, but maybe we can do something about that eh?
Before London I worked for ten years in loads of units, some unionised (Unison and IPMS), and some not -guess where we got ridden roughshod over more? You may not have seen any changes in archaeology, but I have, and want to keep the improvements and build on them. I think that involves a commitment from all of us.
If you think David can replace a union and a professional organisation and charge no subs, and do all the jobs of a union in every organisation, and keep the rest of the site running, then dream on. If you think he probably wants to do that, then dream on. If you want archaeology to be professional, then who is going to sort it, like it or not its the IFA, with pressure from lobbying groups. DF gets you a voice in that for £5, and its getting site staff onto the top table. Any new BAJR group could deliver the external pressure alongside the union. We've all got to do our bit and pull together, if that means one less pint a week to get the industry unionised, then that's a fair price isn't it? You decide.
right, I'm off to herd some cats...
If you are signing on you can get your union subs dropped to a lower rate. IFA I don't think you can as appears to be based on previous years salary. I imagine I'll have to find out soon as all my work has dried up.
So for about 76 quid a year (less if you are on the dole for a bit) you get to be in the union, and have a voice in the IFA. I agree 'about £300' would be a fair chunk of a diggers wage, except the rate I pay to the IFA isn't based on a digger's wage, but as a freelance specialist, and at MIFA rate. The IFA website is still down so I can't get the exact figures for a typical non-London digger, but anyway its less than £4 a week, I didn't want to give a guess, so I gave the cost of my subs.
You talk in another post about needing 'strength and unity to achieve', well the union, and the DF, and indeed the iFA would get a lot more done if everyone stopped saying 'what has it done', got those rogue units unionised and pulled together to improve things and keep them improved. I don't know where you work, or how long you been working but I've spent the last 10+ years digging in London, the union didn't get me huge pay rises as my employer was restricted by DCMS, it did however get me other rights, negotiated higher rises than otherwise, sorted out loads of personal issues that could have ended my career, defended me against disciplinary, saved a load of jobs at the last redundancy round, and before, got a benchmarking exercise, sorted equipment, stay-away, mileage and travel allowances, had a team of dedicated volunteer officials to go to when anything went wrong or seemed unfair, and a load more. Who else is going to do that for you in your organisation? and make sure it stays improved? Yeah we thought central office was too soft, but maybe we can do something about that eh?
Before London I worked for ten years in loads of units, some unionised (Unison and IPMS), and some not -guess where we got ridden roughshod over more? You may not have seen any changes in archaeology, but I have, and want to keep the improvements and build on them. I think that involves a commitment from all of us.
If you think David can replace a union and a professional organisation and charge no subs, and do all the jobs of a union in every organisation, and keep the rest of the site running, then dream on. If you think he probably wants to do that, then dream on. If you want archaeology to be professional, then who is going to sort it, like it or not its the IFA, with pressure from lobbying groups. DF gets you a voice in that for £5, and its getting site staff onto the top table. Any new BAJR group could deliver the external pressure alongside the union. We've all got to do our bit and pull together, if that means one less pint a week to get the industry unionised, then that's a fair price isn't it? You decide.
right, I'm off to herd some cats...