In many rural communities the biggest date in the calendar in the local agricultural show, one of the biggest in the county is the Great Yorkshire Show held in Harrogate - and Unite the Union has had a stall at the show for near 70 years - from the National Union of Agricultural Workers, through to the Transport and General Workers Union and now as Unite the Union.

Andy Pearson is the Education Officer for the North East, Yorkshire and Humber Region for Unite and talks about how the union's presence has developed over the years.

Historically the venue has been used to host our members and provide them with a meal and a place to relax while visiting the showground. This changed in 2014 when we changed the venue to promote trade union history to the public. Last year we called the display ‘Outlaws or Innovators’ and focused on local trade unionists and activists. 

This year we continued the education theme and worked closely with Red Ladder the theatre group and the National Coal Mining Museum. We focused on the Yorkshire Luddites and their uprising of 1812, Suffragettes and in particular local ‘Baby Suffragette’ Dora Thewlis.

The unsung heroes and heroines, Land Girls, Lumber Jill’s and Bevin Boys. We had a section on Mining History and Unite Today, which highlighted two big campaigns at Sports Direct and the Save Our Steel campaign."

Feedback from some of the 2300 plus visitors to the stall was very positive, with groups liking differing elements depending on their age or interest. The Luddites went down well as it’s a relatively unknown history as did the Mining and Unite Today sections.

Unite also had 17 schools of varying ages attend the exhibition some of whom were studying, or about to study, Suffrage and other topics the display touched on. The teaching staff were all very enthusiastic and happy to see something educational at the Show ground their students could engage in.

In total 610 visitors completed feedback forms in and the union scored very highly in terms of satisfaction as well as those who had said that if they attended the show next year they would come and see us again.

Andy said the question of should Unite or any trade union be at the show came up in a live interview with BBC Sheffield at the show:

Our answer was simple, the show is at the heart of the community and that is where trade unions belong. People came to see what we were doing and left pleasantly surprised, many commenting that they had learned something new and were happy they took the time to come inside."

In fact some people were so please with what they saw that the union has recruited new members both to full membership and to our community offer. They also recruited a number of retired people to our retired member’s branches. 

Steve Jeffery is a retired member who helped out on the day and said

What a great day out, promoting the best union in the world to a mainly younger generation. It was great to have a few repeat visitors from last year and a lot more school children coming to see us!"