By | 2 min
Warren Town, director of industrial relations of the Society of Radiographers
It is opportune that in our 90th year of operations as a trade union that we subscribe to UNIONS 21 for the first time in our own right. As a health care union and professional body we have seen many changes to the National Health Service [NHS] all of which have directly affected our members in one way or another and we have always managed to ride above the rhetoric of change and come back fighting.
With a membership concentration of over 80% of the registered and non registered workforce for our professions and union recognition with many of the private sector providers, restructuring of NHS provision, by whatever government is in power, brings with it many challenges for the membership and for the SOR.
Alongside the College of Radiographers [a registered charity] we maintain the professional standards of development for the profession and through the SOR represent the interests of the collective membership.
Hence, the origin of the SOR catchphrase- ‘promoting the profession- representing the members’ which we use in all our dealings with members and others. This may not be new but it’s better than ‘nice to see you to see you nice’!
With the change of government and the creation of the ‘condemned’ alliance we will see new policy and new structures that will test our metal and ultimately our patience. But as a combined body we take the view that there are only challenges and opportunities and this is a philosophy that we have held onto for the last 90 years and will continue to promote as we move to our 100th.
We see our involvement with UNIONS 21 as another opportunity to work with others and shape the direction for unions into the future and to be an integral part of policy development for health care and for the public sector.
