Just as individual pharmacists achieve more by working together as the PDA, the PDA can achieve even more for pharmacists by working with other organisations that have shared objectives. Through the GFTU, the PDA collaborates with organisations that represent others who work directly with pharmacists, for example, the hospital doctors represented by the HCSA and the prison officers and staff represented by the POA.
Some issues such as equality and rights at work matter to all workers in all sectors. Therefore there are also good reasons to collaborate with organisations representing workers as diverse as teachers, professional footballers, social workers, merchant navy officers, and others who are all represented at the GFTU.
It is a strength of the PDA that, in addition to being a key stakeholder in pharmacy, as it is also the 20th largest trade union in the UK it can share best practices, work jointly, and debate with those from across many other sectors and internationally too in order to deliver even more for pharmacists.
Guest speakers at the event included Lord John Hendy KC, who acted for the PDA in the Boots recognition campaign, Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the TUC, and Larry Elliott, the economics editor at the Guardian. The meeting also heard from the Coordinating Committee for international Staff Unions and Associations (CCISA) an international federation that represents staff employed by the United Nations.
Alongside speeches and presentations, delegates also discuss and agree on GFTU policy. The PDA proposed two motions for debate. One motion encouraged the adoption of the PDA Anti-racist Pharmacy Toolkit and was supported by NAPO, the Trade Union, Professional body, and campaigning organisation for Probation and Family Court staff, and PCS, the civil service union. The second motion sought to expand PDA’s campaign for all university curricula to be made inclusive. Inclusive curricula reflect our diverse society and the motion was supported by the Community Union and the Association of Educational Psychologists. Both motions were unanimously agreed upon and hence have become GFTU policy.
Nav Bhogal, a PDA National Representative at Boots, proposed the anti-racism motion and said, “This was my first time as a delegate to the biennial meeting and once again this has shown me the professional development opportunities available to pharmacists by getting involved in the PDA. Before I volunteered to be trained as a Union representative, I would never have imagined that I’d be delivering a speech like I did at the BGCM.
I met colleagues from a wide range of professions and vocations and learned more about their sectors. In doing so it became crystal clear that many of the issues faced by pharmacists, such as bullying, inequality, weak employment law, and the cost-of-living crisis also impact workers across all sectors. Solutions to address these issues must therefore be delivered across the entire UK workforce, or in some instances, solutions must be international. This is why the PDA works both to support individuals with specific cases and at a strategic level to influence structural, cultural, or legal change.
I recommend every eligible pharmacist sign up as a PDA member and then join in with our activity.”
Nav Bhogal, PDA National Representative at Boots
The BGCM also elects the Executive Committee that will lead the federation until the next general meeting in 2025. Paul Day, PDA Director was re-elected for another two-year term of office as an Executive Committee member.
At a meeting of the new executive held alongside the BGCM on day two of the event, a new GFTU President and Vice-President were elected to serve until the next BGCM. Sarah Woolley of food industry union BFAWU is President and Ian Lawrence of NAPO is Vice-President.
Learn more
- PDA Union Recognition at Boots
- PDA BAME Network launches Anti-racist Pharmacy Toolkit (18/7/22)
- More inclusion of LGBT+ education needed in pharmacy schools (2/11/21)
- PDA Union welcomed at GFTU conference (2/6/19)
- Affiliations
Not yet a PDA member?
If you have not yet joined the PDA, we encourage you to join today and ask your colleagues to do the same.
Membership is FREE to pharmacy students, trainee pharmacists, and for the first three months of being newly qualified.
Read about our key member benefits here.