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Are Desk Potatoes Holding Our Movement Back?

By Peter Moss

Few union officials make the time to play sport or keep fit. But, as Peter Moss reports, desk potatoes are destined to underachieve at work and at home.

	Sally McManus

**********

Working for the union movement can be all-consuming. The stress, long hours and travel required of officials can push personal priorities way down the list.

And while many union people find time to watch sport, few seem able or willing to find the time to play themselves.

But according to GP Doctor Con Costa - National Vice President of the Doctors Reform Society - unionists can improve everything from their negotiating skills to their sex lives just by playing sport.

'Why do you think corporations make their executives exercise at lunchtime,' Dr Con asks.

'They spend billions on inhouse fitness programs because they know it pays off. They get better performance, better productivity and better stamina.'

It's a good question: Why aren't unions ensuring their officials are as fit and sharp as the bosses?

If any Australian union has a serious fitness program going, well, they're not advertising it.

And we're yet to see the ACTU Organising Centre sending in the personal trainers with their lead organisers.

It could be argued that health and fitness are personal decisions - that only the individual can make the decision to lift his or her game.

Perhaps, but there are compelling arguments that individual officials, and therefore their unions and the movement, can think smarter and campaign harder if they simply commit to regular exercise.

'All people need to do at first is walk or swim energetically for 30 minutes twice a week,' Dr Con says. 'Start slow and build up.

'Anything which makes you sweat and gets your heart pounding will do - dancing for half an hour is great.

'Soon you'll have more energy - your concentration, your productivity and your resistance to illness will all improve - I guarantee it.'

On the day you exercise your body produces a hormone which calms the brain.

So you need less alcohol and nicotine to relax. You will sleep better, and your libido and physical performance in every regard will improve.

Dr Con cautions that people with heart or other problems should get medical advice before strapping on the lycra.

And he strongly recommends attention to diet - in particular cutting back on carbohydrates and sugars which make calories. Lean meat is 'not too bad'.

And Dr Con swears by fish oil as 'medicine for the body'. He says it's the reason Eskimos have the cleanest arteries on the planet.

'Do yourself a big favour and stock up on tuna, mackerel and the like - fresh or canned,' says the Doc. 'Or just buy fish oil capsules as a supplement.

'It's a great cholesterol fighter and fish oil balances out the bad fats and the good fats, without putting on the fat.'

Not surprisingly, Dr Con also emphasises the importance of an ongoing relationship with your local doctor.

'Don't just see the doctor on a knee-jerk basis, and don't see a different doctor every time,' he advises.

'It's a two-way street. You will get more from your doctor if you build a relationship.'

Dr Con, whose practise is in Hurlstone Park, adds a few words from his own perspective as a political activist.

'We're in this struggle for the long haul,' he says. 'If you're going to be involved it has to be satisfying and sustainable for you. We can't just burn people up.

'Regular exercise or sport is not a luxury. It needs to be seen as a necessity by every union official and activist.'

What sporting unionists say

Workers Online asked three union officials about their sporting lives.

Case study 1: The black belt organiser

Name: Sally McManus

Union/positions: Organiser, ASU Services

My sport & fitness weekly routine: I walk my black staffi dog Xena every day for an hour. And twice a week for three hours I do Tae Kwon Do training. I've been training and teaching for 10 years and I'm a second dan black belt

How I make time: Martial arts is flexible, I can go different days. With Xena, I just have to be disciplined. She needs her walk. If I have lots of meetings, I try and do more on the weekends.

What I get out of it:

Personally: I get fitness obviously, and self-confidence. My sense of personal security and safety is higher and I get stress release. When you push yourself, your body makes endorphins which give you a natural high.

Professionally: Well the personal benefits follow on to my work. As a woman organiser, male bosses try to use their size and power over you. It doesn't get anywhere with me. But I don't play the game back - martial arts teaches you that. Martial arts has something in common with unions, you are supposed to use your skills to defend the weak.

Are desk potato officials holding the movement back? Yes, but they're not the only ones. You see so many chronic problems among union officials - smoking, alcoholism, heart attacks. It's really sad to see what is self-inflicted. If you're not fit, you can't cope with the job.

Case study 2: The swimming secretary

Name: John Robertson

Union/position : Secretary-elect Labor Council of NSW

My sport & fitness weekly routine: Swim one mile - 32 laps - of North Sydney Olympic pool each morning

How I make time: I get up before the chooks. I leave home at 5.15am and jump in the pool at 6am.

What I get out of it:

Personally: Personal satisfaction - I feel better in the day and really miss it if I don't

have the swim

Professionally: It's a chance to think about the day without being interrupted. Once I get to the office, I'm awake and ready to go.

Are desk potato officials holding the movement back? If you are physically fit, you are mentally fit as well. There's no doubt some of my colleagues could be fitter and probably feel better for it.

Case study 3: The cycling organiser

Name: Bob Carcary

Union/position: Organiser, ETU

My sport & fitness weekly routine: I'm into cycling. I try to ride 60 kilometres every Saturday and Sunday. I train alone, but I also enter public rides a few times a year, including a three-day race from Newcastle to Nelson's Bay and back.

How I make time: It's very hard during the week. That's why I do my cycling at weekends.

What I get out of it:

Personally: It's a great release. It gets you away from the pressure of your job. I get more physical energy and I'm fresher mentally.

Professionally: At work, you're able to think quicker and clearer because you've had that release. And you can go longer because you're fit.

Are desk potato officials holding the movement back?: No, but the movement would be better served if they were fitter. They'd last longer, they'd be less stressed. They'd also find an improvement in the quality of their lives outside work.

Peter Moss is a Director of Lodestar Communications

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  Issue 98 contents

»	Twenty Grand � The Cost of a Life in 2001
»	Compo Protest Virtually Ignored
»	Workers Tell Jodie: It's a Bit Rich
»	Disbelief at Dubai in the Sky
»	Wage Rise For Two Million Workers
»	Casuals Win Parental Leave Rights
»	Egan Budget Welcomed � But Social Audit Still on Agenda
»	Bad Rosters �Like Being Drunk�
»	Nurses Act on Ward Rage
»	Council Workers Brace for Border Skirmish
»	Meatworkers Win in Federal Court
»	Hotel Bosses Linked to Tobacco Industry
»	Workers Demand Treaty With Indigenous Australia
»	Activists Notebook

»	The Soapbox
»	The Locker Room
»	Trades Hall
»	Tool Shed

»	Pop and Politics - Where's Billy??
»	Satire is not Serious
»	Toasting May Day
»	WorkCover - Questions for NRMA

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