CWU's Graeme Russell Wins Scottish TUC Safety Rep Award

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CWU's Graeme Russell Wins Scottish TUC Safety Representatives Award

No. 260/09
Ref EX10
Date: 20 March 2009


To: All Branches

Dear Colleagues


CWU's Graeme Russell Wins Scottish TUC Safety Representatives Award

Graeme Russell Union Safety Representative from the CWU Edinburgh and Dundee Borders Branch has been named as winner of the Scottish TUC Health and Safety Representatives of the year Award.


The STUC Safety Representatives annual Award recognises the contribution made by Safety Representatives in promoting health & safety in the workplace and is presented to a Health and Safety Rep who in the view of Scottish TUC has made an exceptional contribution in the role and has demonstrated commitment to working to improve workplace health and safety.


The STUC expert panel of judges selected Graeme as the winner earlier this week and he will be presented with his award at the STUC Congress in Perth, 20 - 22 April.
This of course is fantastic news for the Union with Graeme adding to the growing list of Health and Safety Awards won by the CWU and its Health and Safety Reps over this last successful year.

The last 12 months has been a great period in our history for recognising the Union's work and achievements in the field of Health and Safety. The Union has now won the TUC Safety Rep Award for the 3rd time with Chris Wesson, the Northern Ireland ICTU Safety Rep Award with Sean Doherty and now the Scottish TUC Award with Graeme Russell. The CWU also became the first trade union to win a prestigious Safety & Health Practitioner/Institute Of Occupational Safety & Heath (IOSH) Health and Safety partnership project award along with BT and the CWU along with Royal Mail won the RoSPA 'Workforce Involvement in Safety and Health Trophy, for demonstrating the best Union Safety Representatives involvement in health and safety management, demonstrating effective inspections, investigations and representing members’ concerns.
The CWU is certainly the first Trade Union to achieve all these awards in one year demonstrating the strength of our Safety Organisation within the CWU and commitment of our Safety Reps.

The CWU fully supports the vital contribution our Safety Representatives make to maintaining and improving health and safety in the workplace. It has often been said that 'it's better to be safe than sorry' and whilst this is easy to say, the reality of it requires the support and involvement of well trained Union Health and Safety Reps because even good employers can't do it on their own and dangerous employers don't do it at all!



Graeme is one of many excellent CWU examples of how important our people value health and safety in the workplace. The presence of union safety reps prevents thousands of major injuries at work every year and there is an army of them out there doing a great job for our Union.

Opinion polls indicate that health and safety is considered one of the key areas people at work regard as a legitimate topic for trade union action.

Safety Reps are the best and sometimes the only defence workers have, making sure that health and safety risks are managed properly by employers. We know Union Safety Reps cut the rate of serious injury at work by more than 50 per cent, and over the years they have saved many lives and prevented many injuries by diligence, hard work and commitment. The fantastic work done by CWU Safety Reps in all of our branches up and down the country is helping to improve the lives of our members every year. The time, effort and work these people put in to help their colleagues often belies the time and resources they have available. I am delighted that the STUC have recognised our nominee as the best and I am sure the whole Union will join me in recognising the fine work of our Safety Reps collectively and the above achievements individually.


Yours Sincerely




Dave Joyce
National Health, Safety & Environment Officer