- Conference
- 2010 Health Care Service Group Conference
- Date
- 11 December 2009
- Decision
- Carried
Conference notes the interest in reciprocal community unionism within UNISON and at the fringe meeting at last year’s health conference. Internationally, it has been persuasively argued that trade unions face a legitimacy crisis.
There is a pressing need for our union to project an identity and mission that has an impact in communities beyond our internal and workplace practices. We need to get our message out there. We need to be appreciative of the stake & influence that local communities have in health and welfare. We also need communities and the public at large to become more appreciative of the role of UNISON in working for health and defending public and voluntary sector services. This requires UNISON health branches to be helped to develop forms of reciprocal community unionism, which enable them to forge links, liaison and relationships with their local communities and community organisations and engage them more effectively in our campaigns in the NHS.
It is opportune to consider these initiatives in the health sector because of the mass popularity of the NHS and the potential for meaningful alliances between UNISON and health and welfare social movements, including self-organised service user groupings. It is equally important that the approach is understood and thoughtfully adopted, so that pitfalls are avoided and time and resources are managed carefully, the development of community alliances is a distinctly grass-roots affair.
We call on UNISON to:
1.Build on links with national and international colleagues who advocate this approach to further develop our understanding of it, helping to disseminate best practise and learn from achievements.
2.Regions should develop community organising into its strategy for recruitment and campaigns.
3.Incorporate community unionism into our anti privatisation work, developing a briefing to help branches better understand how this can be achieved.
4.Review how materials including awareness raising can be developed to help branches embed this approach at local level.
5.Make the case for facility time for activists engaged in organising activity.