"The union must see what's going on in the trade - membership has halved in our area".

As it turns out, this quote was made by the frustrated owner of a printing company six years ago, but it could just as easily have been voiced this week. If it had, the "halved" aspect would probably have become a quarter. That there's no National Agreement this year isn't a surprise. What's more surprising is that the parties actually got so far as to attempt to agree on one.

Exceptional times call for exceptional thinking, and it would have been refreshing to see Unite take an approach that indicated some semblance of connection with reality. Hundreds of print jobs have already been lost to the credit crunch, and there will be more to come. We are at real risk of the dreaded deflation, and print is still an industry suffering from overcapacity. Pay freezes are the norm, pay cuts are becoming increasingly commonplace, and many companies are looking to short-time working to help them weather the storm. Given all of this why the BPIF went so far as to offer even a "token" increase is beyond me.

I know it's not all doom and gloom, but there's certainly a lot of it about. At a time like this I think it has to be up to individual employers to communicate their own particular circumstances to employees. I can't see how any blanket agreement could be workable.

Can but hope that Unite's leadership is working with grass roots representatives to ensure that the provisions of the Partnership at Work Agreement, which look good on paper but too often remain just that, are actually translated into the business benefits at the sharp end that will help companies preserve and secure jobs.

This point also begs a further question about the role and duty of the union. Is it a narrow focus on an x% annual increase with no changes to terms and conditions, or is it about the long-term wellbeing and employment of their members? I'd like to think it could be the latter, but unfortunately it seems to be the former.