Do Installers Need A Union?
The idea of representation is thriving in the Reddit, LinkedIn and Facebook sub communities of the internet.
Influential installers are asking how they can change or challenge the bureaucracy of their roles.
Well known champions of retrofit, insulation aficionados, heat pump heroes, solar saviours and battery experts bossing it. They, call out each week, malpractice, negligence and poor service.
Sometimes they call out behaviour on behalf of disenfranchised home owners - stuck in certification limbo.
Sometimes they themselves get caught up in the problems associated with administrating their certifications. Let's bring the story home.
Membership and Representation
Being a member of 'membership organisation' is not the same as being in a union. The editor of this magazine is in a Union. That Union charges less than the price of a coffee a week and offers protections.
Say for instance if a client decides not to pay a bill. Offers no explanation or refuses to communicate. The editor would offer an amicable route out. But if the client still refused to engage, then it's not a problem. The well healed legal team from the Union sallies in, and every single time, get's the money.
Say if an accreditation body was to refuse or challenge an accreditation application. The Union would simply take up the case, and resolve the issue.
You see, the idea of a Union is not about politics, it's about being represented. You can vote for any political party you want in your personal life, but without unionised representation at work, you are merely an army of social media pundits, without a voice.
How Power Is Being Centralised
The other thing about installers. Their power. Their gold plated, dripping with saffron, mystic sword prowess, is. They interact with the technology of retrofit. Every. Single. Day.
So you might get 100 architects talking to 100 building engineers, talking to 100 retrofit assessors. And they will have buy in to systems or platform based retrofit solutions. Or some other catchy byword.
But an installer, will tell you straight up. "That model of [insert product] will not work with this house because [insert performance limitation]". And that information is currently being ignored. We have a feedback loop in retrofit which is locked into 'systems thinking'.
This removes the power, delivers kryptonite to the installers super hero qualities. How? Because the huge amount of field based feedback that installers have is not collated or collected unless is suits the commercial interests of either the product manufacturer or the trade federations.
We had a letter from the Heat Pump Association delivered to this magazine asking us to remove references to their organisation after we reported installers complaints about the issuing of a bland 'maintenance guide'. This is a real life example of how vested interests are stifling innovation, denying installers their place in defining the future of retrofit in the United Kingdom.
Calls For Change
To be fair to the union movement there has been active calls for better representation to harness support for the growing green jobs sector. But to date, we do not have a dedicated retrofit activist group fighting for the rights, work and systems change that is required.
Change is also been very vocal from within various groupings of installers. And rightly so. They are the bedrock of the retrofit revolution and squashing dissent or more importantly, positive feedback that is constructive - is bad for everyone.
Calls for change are emanating from the market, actual consumers too. With demand for solar, heat pumps and batteries seeming to ignore the greenlash. Plus - the predicted market value of retrofit, £60Bn per year, means these calls for change will have to be heeded.
The Trio Of Power
Right now, there are trade bodies, contractor federations and standards organisations all across retrofit. Each one is guided by commercial interests. It locks in the status quo.
We're not saying they need to be disbanded. But rather like the Three Musketeers got a bit musty, the installers, the D'Artagnan of the industry - need to be included in this trio, possibly with a bit of jostling for the big swords.
The Change
Billy Bragg called for the Union Forever. But Unions are not the only answer. Whatever course it takes.
The undeniable value of field based responses, actual real human interaction in the feed back loop from customer to manufacturer would help eliminate the lazy, 'marking your own homework' system that right now.
Installers are the change makers.
Right now. The situation could be improved because.
It needs to be.
This content is being sponsored by the new Thin Wall Insulation product being introduced to UK Homeowners from Europe. Check out their solution - [ANd yes, these guys are stuck in the SAP feedback too - C'mon BRE]
