- Conference
- 2011 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 28 February 2011
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
Conference congratulates branches and regions that have ensured that UNISON continues to meet the challenge of recruiting and organising new members in what is an increasingly hostile environment. The onslaught against public services and the dedicated workers who deliver them by this Conservative led government means that building and sustaining strong workplace organisation must be central to all aspects of UNISON activity. Therefore expanding the number of workplace reps has to be one of our key aims if we are to achieve this goal.
Conference further notes that one of the major challenges we face in local government and the health service is the continuing fall in trade union density. Our credibility with employers and government as well as our national and local bargaining strength are at stake if we do not tackle this issue in what are our traditionally strong membership areas. Conference therefore calls upon branches to encourage reps to attend regional and branch training courses that will equip them with the organising and recruitment skills to deliver real results in workplace revitalisation and membership returns.
Conference recognises the immense pressures placed upon branch organisation and resources, and in particular on activists, to organise and mobilise to protect members’ jobs and terms and conditions. Despite this Conference notes that we must avoid a retreat to defend only at the door of the employer – we must organise and mobilise all workers who deliver public services, not least those in the private and community and voluntary sectors.
Conference welcomes the offer made by the retired members of UNISON to actively assist branches and regions in recruitment and campaign issues. Conference acknowledges the fact that there are many retired members who were activists as working members and who are prepared, if the branch or region wishes it, to assist in a wide variety of ways.
Conference recognises that in a period of austerity measures when jobs services and conditions are under attack people will join a union that is prepared to organise and fight to defend them. The peaks of our recruitment come when we are leading real fights – such as in the pensions dispute in 2006. Conference congratulates the National Executive Council for setting aside a fighting fund to support industrial action and recognises that this will be a key feature of our organising strategy.
Whilst Conference believes that strong workplace organisation is central to attracting new recruits and for delivering for our members, we also believe that it is essential to reach out to the wider community of public service workers and public service users. On that basis organising strategies should include the building of coalitions against the cuts between all public service local trade union councils, workers, users and the community groups that support them. This means identifying ways of organising where our members live as well as where they work.
Conference believes that regions and branches should explore the viability of using existing local structures or, where necessary, helping to create new coalitions within and outside the trade union movement. Branches should consult with their regional organiser and ensure that they are in compliance with UNISON guidelines and rules.
Conference believes that taking trade unionism into the community is about strengthening and consolidating UNISON membership amongst all public service workers, about creating relevant and modern union structures that engage all members, and about building and sustaining relationships with community groups that share our values to forge alliances against cuts in public services and for the principle of public services in itself. Our presence in the community will help us to find new allies, improve our profile and, most importantly, engage and mobilise our members based on their own experience, and increase our power and influence to resist cuts and protect our members’ jobs. This approach will help to articulate our members’ interests in a way that connects with those beyond the workplace.
Conference therefore welcomes the new National Executive Council guidelines on community organising and encourages regions and branches to use them to forge community alliances and campaigns to defend our public services against the pernicious cuts of this coalition government.
Conference further recognises that whilst the priority should be to foster person to person contacts, there is a dynamic online community engaged in countering the Conservative led coalition and in arguing for public services. It is essential that our strategy of taking trade unionism into the community should include a strategy for online campaigning in this country and elsewhere. Conference believes that the union’s decision to fund the ‘Andrew Lansley rap’ video was bold and imaginative, and looks forward to the union continuing to develop such excellent initiatives as part of our commitment to online campaigning. The TUC organised Lobby Against the Cuts Demo on March 26th saw just how well UNISON can mobilise its members, activists and fellow trade unionists alongside people who live and work in all our communities across the UK. Many of us sent updates to those who couldn’t go or were also travelling down via Twitter, Facebook, Bebo, various Blogs and other viral media as we travelled down to the rally in Hyde Park. Conference does indeed welcome the new National Executive Guidelines on community organising but also wants the ‘Fighting Fund’ to be used as effectively as possible to build on the links we have across all communities. Many of our third sector members have national offices whilst working in another region and those branches need to develop those cross country strategies for on-line lobbying and campaigning. Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to:
1)provide guidelines for engagement with online campaigns consistent with our policies and values;
2)Ensure that the strategy for online campaigning includes providing activists with the knowledge and skills necessary to engage with online campaigning, through email, social networks, blogging, website creation and maintenance, and film-making;
3)to encourage branches to meet with other branches who have organised successfully, particularly those other branches who have achieved successful recruitment or density figures.
4)ensure the new guidelines are utilised by regions to develop and support community participation in cross branch on-line anti-cuts lobbying of MP’s and Councillors;
5)support development of tailored on-line training and mentoring for members and activists in community organisations and promote the positive benefits of branch organised participation;
6)proactively encourage regions and branches to work with cross-equality community organisations to collectively challenge all proposed cuts through the Equality Impact Assessment process;
7)examine how members with nationally based Head o