The second study visit of the EU project "Building Social Dialogue in a Changing Labour Market: Peer-learning and Capacity building for Central and Eastern European Workers’ Organisations Representing Performers" took place in London, UK, on the 23rd and 24th of September.
The aim of this EU project is to allow tailored capacity building of performers’ unions in Central and Eastern European countries (CEE) through study visits and thematic exchanges. In the life time of the project, the group will visit DSF (Denmark), Equity (UK), GDBA (Germany), Kunstenbond (Netherlands) and TF (Sweden).
After DSF in June 2019, the group visited Equity UK, in London. The representatives from unions from Croatia, Hungary, Latvia, Poland, Romania and Slovenia met with Stephen Spence, Equity’s Assistant General Secretary, and many other Equity staff members to talk about a variety of issues.
On the first day, Stephen Spence started with a general presentation of the union and of its functioning. Equity is a 90-year-old organisation that has currently 46.000 members. Over time, the union had to adapt to the many challenges arising from the changes in the British labour market, making it a good example for the unions from the CEE countries. During a session intituled "Organising for success", Stephen Spence explained how Equity works to organise artists. He mentioned Equity’s strategy and its daily implementation. He also presented Equity campaigning, giving example such as the recent "Performance for all" campaign. Cathy Sweet, Audio organiser, and Jamie Briers, Live Performance Organiser, presented Equity’s collective agreements in audiovisual and live performance. Among the other issues addressed during the two-day meeting were: Equity communications, Equalities, Parliamentary Work / Lobbying and the Low Pay / No Pay campaign.
Thanks to the information, examples and good practices gathered during the different study visits, the participants from the CEE countries will prepare national strategic plans for their unions in the short, medium and long term.
The third study visit of the project will take place in Hamburg, on the 16th and 17th of December.
