Without trade union representatives, the union movement would not be able to function. Reps are the life and soul of everything we do throughout our movement. They provide a voice for our membership and facilitate workplace negotiations, representation and collectivism. They are the reason these industrial functions can be implemented and thrive. Reps provide members with an opportunity to voice their issues and deal with these directly with management teams. Put simply, industrial relations would not function without our Representatives.
Therefore, to ensure our stability, sustainability and growth, we must ensure branches have a full cohort of Community Representatives covering all the vacant positions. This ensures fair and diverse representation of Community’s membership, and promotes productivity within branch structures, ensuring a powerful, strong and highly representative voice is at the centre of the workplaces we represent.
Here is a list of current Representative positions within Community Union:
- Branch Secretary
- Workplace Representative
- Health and Safety Representative
- Union Learning Representative
- Equalities Representative
- Green Representative
- Digital Tech Representative
If you’re looking to encourage your colleagues to become Community Representatives, here are five key things to consider:
- Be honest – talk about what the Rep role will entail and ensure that prospective Reps fully understand what’s expected of them. Then they can decide if the role is right for them and if they can meet the expectations.
- Be supportive – foster a supportive environment for Reps to air any issues in the branch, seek advice from more senior Reps, and ensure they have clear communication channels as well as regular communication from the wider Reps’ Committee.
- Ensure high visibility in the workplace – ensure Community is visible in the workplace. This can include updating notice boards with posters, union news or workplace updates, providing newsletters to members, and having regular branch meetings – these are just some examples, but if members can see what Community Reps are doing, they are more likely to want to be involved.
- Quick access to industrial training – By ensuring Reps can see the training roadmap and understand the pathway for development, this will increase their productivity, function, and engagement with the role.
- Engagement – Ensure new Reps can engage with the Reps’ Committee – give them tasks to take ownership of and ensure they are present at all branch engagements.
This list is by no means exhaustive and just provides some tips and guidance on how you may be able to encourage members to become Representatives. If you would like further information on this, please contact: Organising@communty-tu.org
If you are a member of Community and need advice or support, please contact our Service Centre at help@community-tu.org or on 0800 389 6332.
© Community Trade Union 2026
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We have received your query and a member of our Service Centre Department will be in touch to discuss further with you.
Due to service demands it is not always possible for our advisors to reply to your query immediately. We aim to respond within 48 hours of receipt.
If your employer has invited you to a formal meeting (disciplinary, grievance or appeal) and you are seeking representation, if you have not already done so via this form, please provide us with all relevant supporting information including any notes/minutes from any investigation process and your email/letter of invitation, which should include full details of when and where the meeting is due to take place.
Please note that representation is not provided for investigation meetings.
If you have any further queries, please contact our Service Centre Department on 0800 389 6332 or at servicecentre@community-tu.org.
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