Ken Loach Says UK’s Top Film & TV Union Risks Failing Vulnerable Workers As Four Members Stage Protest Against Management
28.02.2023 - 17:53
/ deadline.com
EXCLUSIVE: Ken Loach has said the UK’s biggest film and TV trade union is at risk of failing vulnerable industry workers as years-long tensions at the labor rights group have come to a head.
The renowned socialist filmmaker said Prospect, which merged with Bectu in 2017, was not acting in the interests of members after four women quit the union’s top committee in a protest against management.
The Kes and The Wind That Shakes the Barley director said there had been a “clash of cultures” at the union following the merger, which he argued had been “damaging” to the identity of Bectu.
Loach, a member of Bectu and its previous incarnations for 60 years, did not support the merger and was articulating the concerns of others, who have harbored doubts about the coming together.
Tensions spilled over earlier this month when three Bectu members resigned from Prospect’s National Executive Committee (NEC), a group that oversees the work of the union. It followed the resignation of a fourth Bectu member last October.
Sources familiar with the NEC resignations said there had been clashes over budgets, accessing information, and disciplinary action against Bectu members deemed guilty of breaking union rules. Sources said the women were painted as “troublemakers” as they sought to hold Prospect decision makers to account, including general secretary Mike Clancy.
Prospect said Bectu members voted by a large majority to merge in 2016 and that the union had flourished under its leadership, growing membership numbers by more than a third to 37,000. Prospect added that it had eased financial uncertainty at Bectu and invested in the union, making it the “largest and most influential it has ever been in its proud history.”
Loach told