In the wake of ongoing controversy about Access to Work and interpreting contracts, Limping Chicken has been told that a group of interpreters have set up their own union, called NUBSLI, which is affiliated to the Unite union.
A spokesperson told us that “Establishing NUBSLI is focused on making sure the BSL profession is sustainable long term for the mutual benefit of Deaf people and interpreters alike”.
The NUBSLI website says:
As a profession BSL interpreters are currently under represented in discussions with government. Our aim is to have the highest percentage of any UK profession in a union, something that is achievable given the size of our profession. If we succeed in this, our collective voice will be harder for decision makers to ignore.
Letters have also been sent out to deaf organisations, saying:
In the past few years the government and hospital trusts, etc. have demonstrated that they neither understand nor value the work that interpreters do. Evidence of this includes:
– The Ministry of Justice contract that was awarded to ALS (now Capita), that resulted in 100s of interpreters giving up court work, as the pay and conditions were not sufficient to earn a living.
– Hospital contracts awarded to spoken language agencies with no understanding of BSL interpreting.
– And the current problems with AtW, where Deaf AtW users are often prevented from booking the interpreters they need, through budget cuts and restrictions on who they can book.
Whilst each of these situations differs, in each case inappropriate levels of pay and unsafe Terms and Conditions are imposed on interpreters in order to save money.
And in each of these situations Deaf people are therefore prevented from accessing the appropriately skilled and experienced interpreters that they want and need. In fact, the situation is now so bad with AtW that in some areas interpreters are leaving the profession, as they are no longer able to survive as self employed interpreters. And so Deaf people in those areas face increasing difficulties.
Although the interpreting profession is relatively small, we are a varied group of people; employed and freelance, full time and part time, and working across many different domains.A union can provide us with the structure needed to represent interpreters collectively, working towards persuading the government and other providers to recognise appropriate skills, experience, pay, and T&C’s. Being part of a larger Union will also give us access to resources to help us achieve this.
The Union, by supporting interpreters, will support Deaf people who want to have a professional interpreting service, from appropriately skilled and qualified workers, who care about the quality of access being provided.
Whilst we believe that the Union will benefit interpreters and Deaf people, we recognise that some Deaf people may be concerned that the Union is ‘just for interpreters’.
To help demonstrate from the start that the Union is for the benefit of interpreters and Deaf people, we would really appreciate it if you felt able to write showing your support for the Union, with permission to use your endorsement publicly.
The NUBSLI website can be found here: http://www.nubsli.com/
Matt Brown
May 16, 2014
Fascinating. I was just thinking recently how interpreters could use a union. WIth a near-total lack of representation of interpreters at NRCPD and the professional membership field shattered into the ASLI/VLP/ACSW fragments, and Deaf organisations such as the BDA actively speaking out agaist us, the time seems right for a change in approach.
Trivial comment: slightly unfortunate name given that “newb” or “noob” is internet gamer slang for an inexperienced beginner.
More serious comment: there is no such thing as a “BSL interpreter”. Interpreters use more than one language – this is kind of the point.
Tim
May 16, 2014
Seems like a smart move to me; best of luck.
Hartmut
May 16, 2014
The appellation of the profession ‘BSL Interpreter’ is short of ‘BSL-English Interpreter’ and is still proper. It is between English and BSL! And not only Deaf need such language intermediators, but so do Hearing people. The fact that not every Deafie sign in pure BSL does not diminish what they do, for the occasional insertion of English phraesology into BSL signing uses BSL Vocabulary and BSL interpreters need to know Deaf Culture to properly navigate the stream of the mixture of English and BSL.
Isn’t there an association of sign lanuage interpreters already in U.K. in the same way RID in the U.S.?
Hartmut
Brett
May 18, 2014
Hi Hartmut,
Yes, there are professional associations for sign language interpreters in the UK–ASLI and VLP. You mentioned RID in the United States. RID can be most easily understood as ASLI and the NRCPD all in one.
A union is different than a professional association because its main aim is to protect the working rights of interpreters and in this case, by extension, the rights of the people they serve. It would also unite interpreters regardless of which, if any, professional association they have chosen to join. This gives interpreters a stronger collective voice to campaign for these rights.
The U.S. also has an ASL interpreters union called ASLIU.
Jim
May 16, 2014
Not before time. However, it would be helpful to have some more informatio and who the spokesperson for this union is. Were ASLI behind this union being set up?
Emma
May 16, 2014
I’m not comfortable with the wording “the BSL profession”. Is this editor’s or the union’s choice of word?
Josef Baines
May 16, 2014
This is absolutely fantastic news and I am very pleased a union has been set up for sign language interpreters! I would fully endorse this body providing it represents and responds to their members’ concerns and needs.
The sign language interpreting profession really needs protection politically and financially.
Attack sign language interpreters at all levels = deaf people’s lives get affected too.
Protect interpreters = deaf people are protected.
It is a no-brainer to set up a sign language interpreter trade union.
Josef Baines
Deaf sign language user
Oh Dear
May 16, 2014
I’m not sure being affiliated to an union is a good idea. Unions by there very nature full of idiots, loonies, zero understanding of anything related to economics and very anti-tory, anti-liberty, anti-everything except for their own dogma.
It would be better to remain independent and neutral.