At his first health service union meeting, former Welsh steel worker Albert Tarling unexpectedly found himself elected branch secretary
At his first health service union meeting, former Welsh steel worker Albert Tarling unexpectedly found himself elected branch secretary. Accepting the job, he decided on a policy of building trust within his hospital and with the area management.
'When I started,' he told a weekend conference last month, 'I had 175 members. When I left, we were over 1,000. Sometimes management would even point me to workers who had not been unionized. It may take time, but building trust really pays off.'
Albert Tarling comes from Ebbw Vale, one of the oldest industrial areas of Wales with a long history of industrial conflict. Now retired from his hospital and from NUPE (National Union of Public Employees), he was one of 31 from Wales hosting a conference, 'Everyone's chance to make a difference in the world', from 6-8 November. Building trust - in the workplace, the family, between communities and nations - was the main theme.
A series of such weekends is being held at Tirley Garth, the Cheshire conference centre for MRA, where people can come to 'discover, deepen and deploy' faith.
