Martin Black: Making that leap from union member to union rep

Martin Black, an optical engineer who has helped to design and build instruments for massive telescopes here on Earth and in space, says that being a rep has been invaluable to him and recommends that more Prospect members make the leap.

Martin Black

We know that making that step up from a trade union member to a trade union representative can feel like a leap in the dark.

Martin Black, an optical engineer who helps to design and build instruments for space telescopes, actually looks into the darkness for a living, so perhaps it’s no surprise that he’s taken that leap himself.

It is a journey that he says has been incredibly beneficial to him, both personally and professionally, and it is something that he would wholeheartedly recommend to anyone who is thinking of doing the same.

Working at the Royal Observatory

Martin’s first steps towards embracing trade unionism was relatively straightforward.

He says, as a Scot, that “there’s quite a strong trade union feeling generally among my peers and both my parents have been in trade unions at different times.”

After he had completed his undergraduate degree in Astronomy and Physics, Martin joined the UK Astronomy Technology Centre, which is based at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, and is part of UK Research and Innovation.

“We essentially build instruments for telescopes all across the world and in space. Projects like the James Webb Space Telescope we built the instrument for that, before my time, but we were involved in that work,” says Martin.

“I’ve been personally involved with delivering instruments to telescopes across the world like the VLT, Very Large Telescope, in Chile and now working on the ELT, Extremely Large Telescope, that is under construction in Chile too.

“We’re designing, building, and commissioning these instruments, so we work across the full life cycle of the project.”

Martin has now been working at the Royal Observatory for 13 years and, from the beginning, he remembers that joining a trade union was openly spoken about among the small team (that team of around 50 has since grown to about 110), so it was never a difficult decision for him to join Prospect after coming off the graduate scheme.

“I knew about Prospect, and I knew the benefits that they brought to the organisation. Our current director, at that point was a senior manager and was a union rep as well. There wasn’t this perception that being involved in the trade unions was a negative. Instead, it was seen as something that is important to the organisation, and for you personally.”

Becoming a rep

Within a couple of years of joining Prospect, the section secretary wanted to step down and Martin began discussions to replace them.

“As somebody who was prone to complaining about things like pay and all the rest, if I’m then given the opportunity to be involved in trying to fix them and say ‘no’, then I lose the ability to complain about it. That’s how I ended up going from a member to rep,” he recalls.

Martin readily admits that it wasn’t a difficult commitment to make. At the time, it was still a relatively small workplace and the long-standing chair was ‘very good who dealt with most things.’

“I was taking on very small stuff and it felt like an easy route in for me to see what being a rep was actually like.”

However, that soon changed when there was a re-organisation of Prospect’s branch structures, and Martin suddenly found himself going from branch secretary of about 40 members to looking after several hundred.

“That was a dumb move,” Martin jokes now.

“Again, it was a situation where they were looking for a new secretary and nobody volunteered. We’re just sitting at a meeting going around in circles and I got annoyed and said fine, I’ll do it.”

He knew his union activities would now be taking up a lot more of his time and spoke to his line managers about it, who were all incredibly supportive ‘as they could all see the benefits too.’

CPD without the certificate

Martin must have done a decent job. Not only did he become chair of the 1200-strong UKRI branch, but was also trade union side secretary, representing all nine unions that are recognised at the organisation.

The whole experience ‘has given me a horde of skills that I wouldn’t have developed any other way’, he says.

Some of those skills are easy to define, such as learning to take good minutes at meetings, but there are others that are a little more nebulous, such as developing the confidence to speak with very senior managers about problems facing the organisation, asking difficult questions of them and proposing solutions.

“I have these additional skills, plus things like negotiating and finding compromises, pay deals that I’ve been involved with and working on personal cases. Those are all really big things that I would have struggled to understand, or have experience of in any way, other than being a union rep.”

Another example: UKRI is a ‘big organisation with lots of different sites in different parts of the UK.’ Through his union activities, Martin has developed a much better overview of the entire organisation than many of his colleagues working in one particular part.

“That has led to phone calls from people saying, “We’ve got this problem, do you know someone who can you help fix it?” and it saves them weeks of effort because I might happen to know. I think it’s a really underrated thing when you’re able to build those networks, and I would have no access to that without the union.”

Martin says that being a rep has given him all the benefits of Continuous Professional Development, even though he would struggle to carve out the time for formal CPD in his day job. Yet, as a rep, he’s learning so many things ‘without the CPD certificate on my wall.’

Of course, even as a rep, you’re never alone. While Martin has picked things up on his own, he is also quick to credit others for help along the way.

“A lot of it has come from senior reps who have been around for a long time and have sort of trained me up or taken me through bits and pieces as we come across to them. Prospect full-time officers have always been there to support us as well, so there’s always that safety net.”

So, what would his advice be to members interested in being a rep? Can anyone do it?

“Yes, because being a rep has a whole lot of different meanings. You can start with really simple stuff like putting up posters, or just putting people in contact with another rep. You can learn to do as much as you want to.

“Being a rep really does give you the opportunity to develop a wide range of skills that is impossible, or at least very difficult, to find in any other way. They are all transferable skills too, so you take them with you for life.”