CAMPAIGN Rural organising
ORGANISING IN THE COUNTRY
It’s challenging – but it can be done. Here’s how
“Every moment is an organising opportunity, every person a potential activist, every minute a chance to change the world,” said renowned trade union activist, Dolores Huerta, who co-founded the National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) in 1962 in America.
Organising is as vital today as it was then. It’s at the heart of Unite’s core values, being one of the union’s “three pillars” and at the top of Unite’s agenda when it comes to building the union.
Central to organising are workplace activists and the campaigns they run to fight for better pay and conditions, highlight issues and recruit new members to the union.
In the countryside organising can present challenges due to the nature of rural workplaces, travel issues and geographical spread of many branches –but Unite is up for that challenge, and Landworker has been
talking to Unite’s experienced army of rural activists to get ideas and top tips to ensure workers in the countryside benefit from union membership and support.
Farmworker and branch secretary Steve Leniec highlighted the challenges, saying that, “Recruiting in rural areas, and particularly in agriculture has always been difficult. Workers are typically employed in small numbers in isolated workplaces which are difficult to access.”
Steve’s branch covers Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Hampshire and Oxfordshire and he sees first-hand the problems organising in farms that cover thousands of acres with high levels of mechanisation and only a handful of full-time workers.
Even where numbers are higher, such as in horticulture or field scale fruit and vegetables, for instance, labour is typically migrant, and “workers are even more difficult to
recruit because of the temporary precarious nature of their work and language and cultural barriers.”
Yet union membership is vital for short term and seasonal workers who “are easily exploited both by unscrupulous employers and also the agencies which recruit and supply them.”
Meanwhile in the New Forest, forestry worker Lorna Bailey-Towler faces similar issues.
Lorna said, “As there are very few active Unite reps in Forestry England I have taken on responsibilities to cover numerous national projects, such as sitting in on all the different meetings, dealing with pay negotiations and contract review meetings, as well as covering case work.”
Fitting these union responsibilities around her job as a habitat restoration officer leaves little time for recruiting new members, and like Steve, finds the ‘spread out’ nature of rural work a challenge.
Be interested – Monique and horse 34 uniteLANDWORKER Summer 2025
Mark Harvey
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48
