At TUC Congress this year the Communication Workers Union has submitted a motion asking for a study of the exclusion of trade unions in the media. The proposal is simple. But the intention is to start to highlight the exclusion of Britain’s largest voluntary organisations from important areas of public life.

Starting with the media makes sense — unions are doubly disadvantaged there. The portrayal of unions in the media is frequently unbalanced and unfair. At the same time, trade unionists are rarely invited to contribute in the same way employers routinely are.

This absence in the media is just part of the exclusion of trade unions in wider public life. 

Despite over 200 years of history, the only statue I know of a trade unionist is that of Jim Larkin in Dublin. Where are all the blue plaques for those leaders who organised workers mired in humiliating living conditions and under constant threat of victimisation?

A large proportion of the working population has some direct involvement in labour market organising and struggles since the end of the 18th century. Where is their story in a TV box set? 

What do our children learn of the organisations they may someday join? These are organisations which have likely involved some of their direct relatives, living and dead. There is nothing in the national curriculum. This absence teaches children that they, and their relatives, are inconsequential to our society and history.

Perhaps we in the trade unions have taken for granted that the media will always be against us. However true this may be, we still need to contest it.

Like everything else, our representation is subject to a struggle. In the 1960s the working class was growing in confidence and forcing through concessions to its needs. Hence the production and popularity of the TV programme The Rag Trade. 

This programme showed unionised workers in a clothing factory fighting every week to defend their interests against management’s unscrupulous plans. 

They were led by a female shop steward played by Miriam Karlin. The programme was a tribute to the huge post-war growth of unions, and the rise of the shop-stewards movement.

Since the 1980s unions have been on the defensive, losing half their membership. Neoliberal economic policies have intimidated many workers. A legal framework has been imposed to hamper trade unionism. 

Today’s iconic programme representing the workplace is The Apprentice. Here, week after week, the programme ends with somebody being fired.

Today we have other channels to convey our message. Social media offers unions innovative pathways for their message and their organising initiatives. Unions are beginning to grasp these new opportunities.

But we mustn’t give up on the traditional forms of the media. Fighting for fair representation is part of the push to democratise the existing institutions in our society. 

Broadcasters are neglecting the elementary requirements of balance by ignoring trade unions. 

Opinion and comment is not the prerogative of politicians, business people, columnists and comedians. There is no reason why trade unions should not also be able to offer our perspectives on current affairs, newspaper coverage, political and social debate.

Yet this “work” is treated as the expertise of a small professional elite. In just the same way politics is increasingly presented as the sole attribute of career politicians. Excluding trade unions is part of a process of excluding the majority of people in the exercise of power.

Trade unionists acquire great expertise from building organisations with millions of members. We develop skills in negotiation, organisation, education, agitation, bargaining, administration and public communication. 

Our preoccupations are with the economy, social issues and politics. Our perspectives are local, national and international. Powerful unions cannot be built otherwise.

No wonder then that many trade unionists have excelled in fields of social endeavour — including high political office. Yet this expertise is ignored or denied.

The CWU believes the TUC can work with sympathetic academics to study this exclusion. Compiling the evidence is a preliminary step in developing a lobby for fairer representation.

Unions are making an important contribution but this is not reflected in the media. Challenging the stereotypes and exclusions is an important part of renewing our unions for the next generation of workers. 

Billy Hayes is general Secretary of the Communication Workers Union.