What is SAW and what is Unite?

Section of Architectural Workers (SAW) is a Trade Union, and the branch of Unite the Union for Architectural workers and Architects.

Unite is one of the largest trade unions in the UK and Ireland, with over 1.1 million members in various fields including construction.

What is a union?

A union is a membership organisation of workers, who act collectively to improve the conditions of employment in their sector. They do this by giving people the information, skills, and legal backing they need to harness the collective power they already have but rarely use.

Why is unionising architectural workers important?

Architecture is ridden with exploitation: be that overwork, low pay, toxic office cultures, a mental health crisis, a lack of BAME/working class representation, a widening gender pay gap, precarious contracts and unstable employment. SAW members are actively working to address these exploitations in their workplaces right now, using the tools they have from their union.

Workers in other industries, supported by strong unions, leverage their collective power not only to protect and enhance their individual pay and conditions but also to address the broader societal impacts of their exploitation. 

Many in our sector are aware that the ongoing race to the bottom, caused by employers accepting lower and lower fees, impacts our ability to carry out our professional duties, most terrifyingly demonstrated by the Grenfell Tower fire. 

However, low fees are a product of worker exploitation, not an excuse for it. Undercutting is only possible by paying low, expecting workers to work beyond contracted hours and bullying to work faster. 

Thus, to end the race to the bottom, we must first organise together to end the exploitation. This is the role of the union, you can read more about our theory of change here.

How many people are employed by SAW?

SAW has no exclusive paid members of staff, we operate in the framework of Unite the Union, which has a limited staff body supported by a network of elected workers with ‘facilities time’. These are people who work full-time for an employer who has recognised Unite and, therefore, gives that worker a percentage of their working time to fulfil their union duties.

How many architectural employers have recognised SAW x Unite so far?

None yet, but we have lots of interested people! We affiliated to Unite in November 2023, and since then have been working with many groups of workers to get their recognition agreements across the line. If you want to beat them to the punch and become the first ever unionised architecture office in the UK, get in touch with the workplace organising team!

How does SAW run if you have nobody getting paid/ time off from work to run it all?

A lot of dedicated volunteers who share the work outside of their jobs because they believe it needs to be done. You can read more about our elected roles and working groups here; every member is welcome to contribute what they can, no matter how small.

Why should I join? What support does SAW give me?

Like all unions Unite membership will give you excellent legal support if you are ever unlucky enough to need it, as well as lots of other great benefits.

However the best benefits come from when you convince your colleagues to join with you. Only you can do that. Unions are not 3rd party arbitrators between workers and their employers who come in and fix things, unions are a community of the workers who support and empower each other to fix your own problems. Thus being a member of SAW will give you access to a wider community, and enable you to build one in your own workplace, that will give you the ability to win better conditions for yourself.

Do you really think architects belong in the same parent Union as labourers / electricians / steel workers / oil and gas workers / weapons manufacturer workers ect. ?

People under the Unite umbrella have shared issues (precarious working, overworked, underpaid, the climate disaster, etc.) We think that we share more with the people who build the buildings we design than with the directors and clients who instruct us. If we can recognise that, and work together, we are far more likely to succeed in building the things we want to build. 

Furthermore, oil and gas workers and people who actually build weapons systems are skilled people who are necessary to any future free from fossil fuels or free from war. Their interests lie with us as fellow workers, and we are far more likely to learn from each other by being part of the same democratic organisation.

There was a union before so why did it fail?

The unionising efforts of the 1970s (NAM which created BDS-TASS) did not survive the anti-union context of the 1980’s but they also joined a union which was not supportive of their ambitions. SAW has consulted with the people involved with NAM, and has learned from its successes and failures. Most crucially however, unlike BDS-TASS, we are organising with everyone who works in the sector, including designers, technicians, administrative staff, and the people we work with on site. 

The “professions” don’t need unions; that’s why BDS-TASS failed, and that’s why there hasn’t been a successful union since.

Many professions are fully unionised, including Education, Medicine, and public sector workers. When their pay and conditions slip, they fight to defend them, and often, they win. Meanwhile, Pay for architects has decreased by 36% in real terms since 1996.

What do you think of RIBA /ARB?

We want to work with them. But they have different charters and legal responsibilities to a union, so we cannot expect them to behave like one. Furthermore, there are limitations to what the RIBA can do to help workers or go after employers who break the Code of Practice, these are limitations that we do not have.

Some say we should be campaigning toRIBA/ARB rather than unionising. But we know the only way that professional bodies will ever make the changes that workers need, is if there is a strong organisation of workers who make it impossible for them not to.

Are SAW not just creating an unnecessary division between employers and workers? Wouldn’t it be better if we all worked together? (or: I’m a great boss, why do you hate me!?)

SAW isn’t creating a rift between workers and employers. We are highlighting the existing power hierarchies within practice. We believe workers are best placed to make decisions about how a practice should run, and so workplaces as a whole will hugely benefit from a unionised workforce. 

Employers and workers don’t always have the same interests, and in the system we have, the interest of the employer will often come at the expense of the worker. This does not mean that shared interests do not exist, ending the race to the bottom will benefit us both, but it does mean that our movement must remain separate from those run by and for employers.

What do you think of employee-owned trusts?

Employee-owned is not the same as employee-run. There is a huge variety of structures out there, so no one size fits all, and some are democratic. However, we have also seen some practices borrowing huge sums to pay directors who are getting to the end of their careers and using EOTs as a way to remove their equity tax-free. This debt has an ongoing impact on the business and has, in some cases, led to lay-offs. So, in short, we’re not optimistic that left alone, employee-owned trusts offer any benefit when compared to a union recognition agreement that would give workers real control to negotiate their terms.

What about AI? Wouldn’t unionising the profession accelerate automation?

Automating the boring aspects of architectural work would be of great benefit to workers - lets make our jobs more fulfilling - to be able to do this we need more democratic control at work. Also your job will not disappear, but it will change. Throughout history automation has never led to less work. People worried about job losses because of photocopiers, then again before computers, and then BIM. But time and time again our jobs transform. Workers are necessary, and as long as that is the case, then we should unionise to improve our working conditions.

What about cross-border outsourcing?

More of your job than you can imagine cannot be reproduced in a different place. Much of the value we add comes from meeting clients, planners, members of the public and creating a narrative about a locale that is inherent to being placed within it.

Furthermore, our movement extends beyond the borders of Britain and Ireland. We are part of the AWI (Architectural Workers International) which is a network of similar unions and organisations, currently in 19 different countries. Through Unite we are also connected to the Building and Woodworkers international, which is the global confederation of construction unions, consisting of 365 trade unions representing around 12 million members in 111 countries.

Like domestic undercutting, outsourcing being cheaper is a product of local contexts making workers more exploitable. Thus, the only solution is the international collaboration of workers.

Isn’t the problem that there are just too many architects? My year at Uni was huge!

‘Oversupply’ of architectural workers is a common misconception.

It is true that universities have become financialised - and there is an incentive to create loads of architects with the minimum spend on teaching staff. But it is not true that it’s a problem to have lots of educated and informed people hanging around. 

In the UK the unemployment rate for architects in 2024 was less that 1%, compared to a national average of 4.4%. If we were an ‘Overpopulated profession’ this would not be the case.

Lots of jobs in our economy are very badly paid but have very few people ‘competing’ to do them, i.e cleaning. In comparison other jobs have very high salaries, higher levels of unemployment and lots of people trying to do them, I.e Lawyers. 

If the labour economy was just simple supply and demand this could not be the case.

Therefore we must consider the pay and conditions under which we are employed as the primary problem and fight to improve them together. Rather than assuming that either the market will fix it for us, or conversely, that the market will make our gains obsolete.

It sounds great, but how on earth are you going to get every architectural worker in the UK to work together, it just sounds very fanciful!

It is important to remember quite how small an industry we are. In the UK there are ~117’000 architectural workers, 42’000 of whom are ARB registered. When we compare this to other workers who have achieved strong unions, ~102’000 railway workers, ~469’000 teachers, ~134’000 Hospital Doctors, these numbers seem pretty achievable.  

It is also untrue that unionisation is only possible in industries with large employers, like the public sector. Firstly, Trade Unions in the UK have a proud history of defending and expanding the rights of working people, including long before these large public sector employers existed. Secondly, many unions are strong in sectors with numerous small employers right now! Some notable examples are the Independent Workers' Union of Great Britain (IWGB), whose successful actions reclassified gig economy workers from independent contractors to workers entitled to employment rights, and the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India, who organises 3.2 Million members in 18 Indian States.

What do I have to do to become a member? Pay? How much is it?

The membership costs are £15/month. There are cheaper rates if you are part-time employed, a student or unemployed.

Things are good for me, I have the perfect job.

It’s great to hear that you have a stable work situation. But have you had bad experiences before and can you guarantee that you won’t in the future? Employers are a volatile bunch, one day you’re the favourite, the next you’re out the door.

I have a good relationship with my boss/associate so I don’t need the union.

It's great that you have a good manager, but building a stronger union isn’t just about having a good personal situation, it is about you and your coworkers building the collective power to change the industry.

If I'm a member of a union am I less likely to find a job?

You are under no obligation to disclose your union membership to an employer, and it is up to you to tell someone at a job interview that you are. The law protects union members from trade union ‘victimisation’ (when you are treated detrimentally by an employer because of your Trade Union membership).

What can the union do to help me find a job?

It is not the role of the union to help members find a job, however our members are part of an active community and word of mouth is often the best way to find opportunities. More broadly, we are working to collectively obtain better employment conditions, this has a positive effect on the whole industry and makes workers less precarious and expendable during inevitable times of crisis.

I’m not working - what is my role in the union? Why would I join?

We recognise that the cost of union membership, although relatively low for community members, will deter students and those looking for work. If you decide to join without a job, you can become part of a network of architectural workers, and participate in the project to change architecture as a profession. You can learn about your rights, act in solidarity with other members, attend meetings and training - all of which will be useful for the day that you do find a job, or have a workplace issue or dispute.

What has SAW achieved so far?

We have seen workers collectively taking action and winning. We have a fast growing network of workplaces across the country, actively seeking recognition from their employers. We have fought off redundancies, pay cuts, and in the worst cases of abuse have secured financial settlements for our members worth hundreds of thousands of pounds.

You have an answer to everything don’t you…where has all this come from?

This page, like all of SAW, is a collective project from hundreds of collaborators right from the very beginning of the Workers Enquiry in 2017, through to our most recent meeting (every 3rd Tuesday of the month).

What should I do if I have a different question?

Get in touch, come to a meeting, get organised!