Politicians can’t and shouldn’t exist in a vacuum

Since being elected to the Welsh Assembly in 2011 I’ve visited a range of workplaces and met with managers and trade union reps across the length and breadth of my constituency.

Over the past three years I’ve spent time in schools, shadowing emergency services, on the factory floor at many places and even laying railway sleepers.

But I was pleased to have the opportunity to do a workplace visit with a difference through my union Unite’s Walk a day in our shoes campaign. In the past year I have joined 16 other Assembly Group colleagues who are members of Unite – including the First Minister Carwyn Jones – to spend hours at a factory, office or other workplace in their constituency shadowing a fellow Unite member at work.

I did my work shadowing at Kronospan in my north Wales constituency – one of the world’s largest manufacturers of wood panel products and laminate flooring and a major local employer, with a workforce of over 600 of which around 90% live within 10 miles of the site.

Unite has recognition at the site and I was placed in the capable hands of Unite shop stewards Tony and Malcolm. Now despite the fantastic film showing little documentary evidence of me actually getting my hands dirty – we were restricted from filming inside – I can confirm that I was put to work, they even had me brushing up!

I learned a considerable amount about the need for health and safety in the workplace, for strong union representation and of the value that skills bring to employees.

My time spent on the work shadowing was invaluable – in an age when there is much discussion about disengagement with politics, it is important for us politicians to get out of the Senedd and onto the shop floor and into the local community, spending time learning, talking and listening to the people that we are privileged to have been elected to represent.

I know that Unite have taken the ‘peer to peer’ approach, linking Assembly Members who are members of Unite with fellow Unite members, because although our world of work may be different, our union membership is what links us together providing the common ground to start from.

This is spot on. Politics nor politicians cannot or should not exist in a vacuum – or a bubble as is often referred – and the Unite Wales Walk a day in our shoes initiative is a great way of starting to bridge the gap. Through the scheme Assembly Members have had a chance of increasing their understanding of what Unite members and representatives do within industry and the public sector in Wales today and Unite members across the country have been supported by their union to directly engage with their elected representatives.

The feedback all round from Walk a day in our shoes has been positive and I can speak for my colleagues who took part when I say we look forward to the next steps, and, yes the next round of work shadowing.

Ken Skates is the Labour Assembly Member for Clwyd South and Deputy Minister for Culture Sport and Tourism in the Welsh Government.

The film of the Unite Wales peer to peer work shadowing campaign ‘Walk a day in our shoes’ is now live online here.