Cracking the Difficult Conversation in the Workplace

The Equality, Education & Development department has just completed its ‘Countering the Far-Right’ pilot course in Quorn Grange. A number of representatives from around the country, ranging from BAME Officers, Branch Secretaries, Industrial Reps and Political Officers descended into the Leicestershire village for an intensive session, designed to help our reps have those difficult conversations.

The rise of the far-right has steadily been increasing, though the ‘Burnham bounce’ seems to have reversed some of their popularity.

We know there is disillusionment amongst our membership and our reps to a certain degree when it comes to politics, quality of life, cost of living etc. People are looking elsewhere for answers – for hope. The problem is, the far-right offers little but division and hate. The course offered reps a reset on how to approach the problem and more specifically how to manage the conversations at work when typical lines of attack used by the far-right are bandied about.

Based on the feedback from the reps, the pilot was a resounding success – the CWU are determined to tackle the issue of the threat of Reform through respectable conversations and acknowledging some of the societal issues that some people have.