Trade unions are increasingly thinking seriously about the use of video to get their messages across to their members, potential members and to the public.
Both NUPE and NALGO now have experience of production and a range of applications.
NALGO, I understand, has so far limited itself mainly to top-quality production working out at about £1,000 a minute, but of late it has also produced a couple of 'cheap and cheerful' videos for short-life use.
Like other unions NALGO has been particularly concerned about the difficult problem of getting branches to use the videos that are available.
In 1984 NUPE took its video-production programme a stage farther by establishing an 'in-house' facility, and at the same time was able to tackle the problem of distribution and use.
It was evident to us that, at costs ranging from £15,000 to £50,000 from specialist producers, few unions could afford to produce many videos. And if few were produced, it would be impossible to build a video 'culture' within the union.
To build that culture we needed to create an expectancy in our members, by regularly delivering videos on a range of subjects and issues. That, in turn, would encourage the organisation of opportunities to use the tapes.
The 'in-house' facility comprises a small studio equipped to film, edit and copy tapes. Each of our 11 NUPE divisions was also supplied with video-cassette recorders and television monitors to encourage and facilitate the viewing of tapes.
The overall cost of all this was around the price of two middle-of-the-range commercially produced tapes, and it has already paid for itself through the videos we have made and other uses to which the equipment has been put.
Apart from reducing the production cost, our own facilities have given us the benefits of flexibility and immediacy of production. The tapes we have produced so far include productions on women in the union and on combating racism, campaigning tapes on key issues such as the health service and the political fund ballot, and information tapes on changes in local government manual pay.
Whenever we produce a tape, we issue discussion notes or work-books, so that the tapes are used actively and collectively and not viewed individually and passively.
We use close-circuit television at our national conference and video-record the proceedings. That not only provides a complete record; it also enables us to create edited compilations for use on courses,showing potential and new delegates how conference works and encouraging them to participate in debates.
A video library has been set up at Head Office, with over 300 titles available on free loan to branches, with a catalogue and a leaflet to branches keeping members aware of what's available. A viewer's record card is sent out with every tape borrowed, and from this we can monitor the use and value of the tapes.
Now we are developing a programme of media training for key members and officers of the union.
We are hoping also to produce a quarterly 'NUPE.News' video, about 15-20 minutes long, dealing with the 'topics of the day'. It would have a national flavour, but include a regional slot for presenting a key development or dispute.
The material gathered for the news video could also be used in other videos used for campaigning purposes.
Individual items could provide the basis for 5-to-10-minute campaign or information tapes. For example, the footage shot for a 3-minute item on water privatisation in the news tape could be used for a range of tapes on specific issues - for anglers, conservationists and consumer groups, as well as for members. In this way we can make interesting, thematic and continuous use of material instead of confining ourselves to the occasional tape on a specific issue in isolation from other developments.
I would go farther and argue that the trade union movement needs to-be even more adventurous and take advantage, through video, of developments in satellite and cable TV. But that must be the subject of a separate article.
Jim Sutherland NUPE Education Officer
December 1991