I'm currently writing a review of last week's "Just the Job?" event, plus all the excellent ideas that delegates came up with, but in the meantime, here's my speech from the first session.

If you want to know more about our campaign and/or women's rights at work, then drop me an email on jo.salmon@nus.org.uk or visit the TUC website or More Than Work.

Just the Job opening speech

Good morning everyone.

Welcome to Congress House and welcome to our Just the Job event.

My name is Jo Salmon and I’m the NUS National Women’s Officer.

This year, when I’ve been telling people about our Just the Job campaign, many student activists and trade unionists have got very excited about the concept and eager to get involved.

But others just looked confused, and you could see the questions forming in their minds.

• What’s this got to do with students?
• What’s this got to do with women students?

And it’s only when I’ve explained about the gender pay gap, about sexual harassment and sexual discrimination, about the student job market, about how more students are working than ever before, about the types of jobs students do and the conditions they’re forced to work in, about the rights they don’t know about, the differences between the minimum wage and a living wage – it’s only when I’ve explained all this that they start to understand why a campaign about students and their rights at work is so important – and why it’s doubly important that we target women students.

But what really helps people understand is, as always, real experiences about real jobs.

I’m sure that if we did a quick straw poll right now, most of you could tell us about at least one grotty job, at least one experience you could have avoided if only you’d known your rights and how to take them up.

Well that’s what I’m going to do now – tell you about my experiences as a part-time worker and how I wish I knew then what I know now.

One of the worst jobs I ever had was working in a cafe for the grand sum of one fifty an hour. And for that one pound fifty, I was expected to be on my feet for eight hours with only a quick fifteen minute break – when it could be fitted in – for lunch. We weren’t allowed to bring our own food in and had to get something off the menu. Which we were then expected to pay almost full price. I don’t know if you’ve ever had to work for two hours to pay for the lunch you didn’t want to buy, but let me tell you, it’s a demoralising experience. I quit on my third day after being told off for doing something wrong – even though no-one had ever showed me how to do it properly in the first place. Dumping everything on the counter, getting my coat and telling my boss where to stick his one pound fifty was one of the most empowering experiences of my life – and I thoroughly recommend it!

Of course, getting sacked doesn’t induce quite the same reaction – particularly when you come into work one day to find that your boss has left your day’s wages in one of those small brown envelopes with a small note explaining that your services are no longer required. Not because you weren’t any good, not because you did anything wrong, but because they only wanted someone to work over the busy holiday period and conveniently “forgot” to tell you when they hired you.

Both of these took place when I was at school, and when I was a student, I managed to develop a slightly better instinct at choosing my jobs. I say jobs in the plural because my grant and one Saturday job weren’t enough to pay the rent and put food on the table and buy those much needed text books, so by the time I reached my final year I had three jobs. I worked in a shop on Saturdays, I worked on the reception for the students’ union each lunchtime and a couple of afternoons a week, and every night I stacked shelves in the supermarket.

I’m not quite sure how I managed to fit everything in, but essays were written overnight, sleep became a luxury and friends were slotted in whenever there was a free moment.

What started out as a busy but manageable schedule ended up being so ridiculous because, like many students, the promise of overtime was used by my boss at the supermarket first as a reward (I’m offering it to you first) and then as a way of getting you to work a more-or-less full time job without ever having to offer you the benefits of being on a full-time contract. What started out as an extra hour here or there swiftly became an extra hour every shift – which then became a shift every night.

If you didn’t take the overtime then there would be no more overtime. Ever. And when you need the money, you take the money.

Which is why I worked over 50 hours the week before my finals – though I was allowed to take it down to just 39 hours the week of my finals…

In the end, I quit (again!) but only after I was promised a promotion and that elusive full-time contract, only to be told the day before I was due to start that the offer no longer existed as they couldn’t possibly allow two women to lock up the building at night. On safety grounds, of course.

I should have complained, but I didn’t know how. So I quit. In a way, I’m glad, as I would never have run in the full-time elections in my union if I’d stayed, but I still can’t believe I was treated that way. And I really can’t believe that I allowed them to get away with it.

But the reason they did treat me like that, and the reason I let them, is not unique.

In each case, I was disposable.

If I didn’t want to do the work, they could easily find someone else who would.

And if I didn’t like it, well what would I do about it?

Complain to my union? Hang on, why would I be a member of a trade union? A young student working a part-time job. Yup, exactly the type of person who is least likely to be a member of a trade union! Who is least likely to know the first thing about her rights at work, and who is least likely to do something about it.

And that is why the NUS Women’s Campaign is working with the TUC to hold today’s event.

Because it is our members who will have had similar experiences to mine and who will either put up or quit.

And that is unacceptable.

Whether it’s poor working conditions or long hours for low pay, or unequal pay, or sexual harassment, NUS has got a responsibility to ensure that our members know their rights under the law and how to ensure that those rights are met by their employers.

We believe that the best way for our rights at work to be met and improved is if students who work join a trade union. NUS is a collective, democratic organisation, fighting for our members’ rights as students. But we – and you as student officers and activists – cannot be expected to be experts in every field. When it comes to employment, we believe that a student’s place is in a trade union. Not just because this is where students will be best placed to receive the information and support they need if something goes wrong, but because we believe that workers should organise together, as a collective, to fight for the rights, pay and conditions they deserve.

Pick any mass movement or social victory, and you’ll see that the unions were at the heart of it, marching and fighting together under banners for collectivism and solidarity.

And when it comes to women’s history, the unions are central to our wins and victories. Ever wonder how we won the Equal Pay Act? Well thank the women who worked at the Ford factory in Dagenham. Thank them and the countless other women trade unionists whose struggles paved the way for equal pay legislation.

No, we haven’t yet closed the gender pay gap and won a decent living wage for every worker in this country, but we’re closer than we’ve ever been.

But Unions are not just about our history as women or as workers. Trade Unions must be a part of our future, both as individuals at work, and as a movement. It is only by organising together that we will win. It’s only by organising together that we will close the pay gap, it’s only by organising together that we will win on issues such as maternity leave and childcare, and it’s only by organising together that we will win a living wage for all workers.

So whether you work part-time alongside your studies or you’re a full-time sabbatical officer, there’s one message you must take back to your students:

If you’ve got a job, get a union.

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