Work has continued over the summer to turn the OtW strategy into meaningful activity to deliver our 2023 objectives of sustainable membership growth and a significant increase in activist recruitment.
An implementation project board has been established with each of the 83 recommendations assigned to a workstream to deliver implementation. Early progress has been made and work is ongoing to develop new organising materials such as best practice organising guides, a new organising and equalities impact assessment, a branch communications guide and new activist and staff training offers.
The primary focus in recent months has been on planning for delivery of agreed 2023/4 “One UNISON” organising priorities of English multi academy trusts (MATS), NHS “pay fair for patient care” re-banding campaigns (PFfPC), and devolved nation social care. Each has clear objectives to increase membership density, identify and develop new activists, and deliver material gains for members. There will also be new systems for reporting of activity and outputs to ensure activity is evaluated and key lessons captured to inform and further strengthen UNISON’s organising approach.
Multi Academy Trusts (MATs) in England
Twenty one MATs will be prioritised for coordinated regional and branch organising activity across 607 schools from 4 September. Twelve are exclusively located within individual regions and 9 cross regional boundaries. A whole MAT approach will be taken in every case to ensure activist structures can be developed and organising activity can be aligned with bargaining aims. Every MAT has a bargaining lead and every region has an organising lead. Organisers have been briefed and they in turn will be briefing relevant branches and regional forums. New materials include a school specific QR code for expressions of interest in activism, a refreshed UNISON college member learning offer, a ‘safe schools’ checklist and a new modularised ERA steward training course for schools. Potential organising issues identified in the autumn term will inform any coordinated organising activity in future terms.
Pay Fair for Patient Care
The ‘Earnings Max’ campaign to secure correct banding for the work of health care assistants and other NHS staff has grown significantly since last years pilot campaigns.
Twenty-one campaigns have been won and resolved to date – securing re-banding and backpay for thousands of health care assistants winning a known £36.5 million (some still unknown and total estimated to be closer to £50 million). Organising outputs have been significant in terms of membership growth and a significant expansion of the activist base in many branches.
Sixty-one campaigns remain live with more still to launch. Each region has identified key strategic priorities within those live campaigns from 4 Setpember. Ideally Trusts will set a good back pay benchmark to improve back pay settlements in surrounding Trusts in future campaigns.
A specific PFfPC ‘active member’ RMS code has been established to track participation and develop activism through the campaigns and new reporting arrangements will capture key lessons to ensure the campaign can be strengthened further ready for an even wider roll out across the union.
Devolved nation social care
With a slightly later launch date of 5 October, plans are well underway for organising activity in social care in the devolved nations. Initial target providers will be confirmed in early September to enable detailed planning. Each of the campaigns will have a heavy emphasis on innovation and learning lessons for how we organise in this challenging, growth area of public service employment.
2023/4 Organising Framework
During the ORSD project the organising framework (OF) was repeatedly raised as an issue. The OF is now 5 years old. Ground breaking at the time, there is a growing concern that the system may no longer meet the union’s needs. The OF remains the primary planning tool for base organising and the OtW strategy includes a commitment for a review to ensure it is fit for that purpose.
The national Strategic Organising Unit released a survey to gather the views of branch secretaries in May 2023. The same survey was then released regional organisers (ROs) in June 2023. To date (August 2023) 77 responses have been received. 56% from RO’s and 46% from branch officers. Responses support the ORSD anecdotal findings that the OF concept is important and must be retained, but its application must be more user friendly, more focused, more practical, and avoid unnecessary duplication.
The fundamental change required means a new system cannot be delivered ready for October 2023. The 2023 OF platform will therefore remain as per previous years and must be completed. Questions will be reviewed to remove duplication and any considered outdated or superfluous by relevant stakeholders. A small number of new questions will be added reflecting 2023 NDC decisions and organisational developments and a short section will be inserted to collate user views on the OF process to inform its future development. Further proposals will be discussed at the NEC Development and Organisation Committee in the coming months with the intention of ensuring a new OF platform is in place for October 2024.