- Conference
- 2012 National Delegate Conference
- Date
- 1 January 2012
- Decision
- Carried
Conference acknowledges the unprecedented levels of recruitment to the union over the last year. This growth is primarily because UNISON was prepared to get involved in organising industrial action to defend pensions in coordinated action with other public sector unions. Conference recognises that where we give strong and positive leadership, it inspires workers to become actively involved in the union. Recruitment during 2011 was the highest since the formation of the union in 1993. This reflects both the challenges and opportunities we face in organising in a period of prolonged austerity measures.
Conference congratulates all activists and staff who have made a contribution towards making UNISON one of the most successful recruiting unions. The partnership between activists and staff is fundamental in ensuring this success. The joint branch assessment process is central to ensuring that this partnership is deepened.
Strong workplace organisation in every workplace is essential if we are to retain the members we gained over the last year and if we are to continue to meet our members aspirations, win our members campaigns and grow. A key aspect of this workplace organisation is the identification of new stewards, the continuing support of their role and encouraging more members to engage in their union’s organising agenda. These are both central to the future of the union. As the nature of workplaces rapidly change, so must the way in which we organise.
Conference believes that supporting new stewards and activists is essential, and such support should be developed to be as accessible as possible: through training and education, mentoring, mutual support networks, etc. Conference further believes that UNISON should continue to develop its support resources in a variety of ways, including the development of online resources, noting the excellent webpages developed by the National Young Members Forum ‘Young Members Get Organised’ which can be accessed online.
Conference recognises the difficulties in reaching workers in outsourced areas because of the limitations of facility time to the core employer but believes that this is an organising priority for the union that needs to be addressed. Workers in outsourced areas are some of the most vulnerable workers in the economy and need the support and protection that this union can provide. When we have reach workers in outsourced areas they have often proved to be very receptive to the UNISON message. Conference also recognises both the importance and the challenges of reaching under-represented groups of workers, including young, migrant, Black, disabled, lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, part-time and low paid workers.
The overall recruitment performance of the union was given a huge boost by our pensions’ campaign. Conference notes in particular that young member recruitment soared to the highest monthly peak on record in November 2011, following campaigning around pensions. As well as being a huge success in recruitment terms the pensions’ campaign also provided major lessons in how best to organise to reach members and non-members. The organising model of maximising visibility in every workplace is workload intensive but clearly demonstrates that the more visible we are the more our members respond and the more non-members come to us. The new National Strategic Organising Unit will play a central role in ensuring that the key organising lessons are shared across the union and implemented.
The pensions campaign, and especially the surge of recruitment around 30 November, also demonstrates the powerful attraction to non members and union members of united co-ordinated action across unions to meet the massive challenges imposed by austerity measures.
Conference therefore calls on the National Executive Council to:
1)strengthen the joint branch assessment process to ensure that it can be shown to demonstrably enhance the partnership between branch activists and union staff and delivers strong workplace organisation in every workplace;
2)working with the self-organised groups and young members, ensure the branch assessment process includes measures on tackling under-representation and supporting self-organisation;
3)develop a plan for recruiting new stewards and for support from the regions, LAOS and the Organising Unit for their role in a fast changing environment seeking to provide accessible materials in a variety of formats, including support through web-based tools and resources;
4)develop a plan for encouraging more members to do more for the union;
5)develop a strategy for reaching and supporting workers in outsourced areas that takes into account the restrictions on facility time;
6)ensure that the organising lessons of the pensions’ campaign are learned and disseminated across the union by the National Strategic Organising Unit working with service groups, self-organised groups, regions and branches
7)continue to support the National Young Members Forum in its efforts to promote the organising approach to new young members, who are less likely to have experience or expectations of UNISON as a ‘servicing’ union, and who therefore may be more open to participating on the basis of making a personal contribution of their time and energy.
Conference recognises that recruitment and organising are two sides of the same coin. UNISON membership is currently at 1.3 million members. We are the biggest public services union in the UK. We should be proud to be the biggest public services union and recognise that we are at the forefront of campaigning and organising.
But we cannot be complacent, other unions are involved in recruitment and they are naturally looking to increase their membership in direct competition to UNISON. But the biggest threat to UNISON is those employees who are not members of any trade union. We need to encourage them to join to make us stronger.
We are working towards a target membership of 1.5 million by 2013. But Conference believes we are capable of growing our membership to 2 million members. However, we accept this will not happen in one single year or even two years. This should be our long term goal, clearly identified in our recruitment strategy.
There are many good areas and examples of good practice on recruitment both within UNISON and our sister unions in other countries. We must share this good practice across UNISON, to assist branches in their work on recruitment and retention.
Conference recognises the benefits which the branch assessment process has brought in helping branches, to set priorities/actions/targets for the year ahead, and the unprecedented financial support provided from the general Fighting Fund to recruit “Campaign/Local Organisers” with recruitment being high on the agenda.
Conference calls on the National Executive Council to work with all regions and service groups in the development of a national strategy for recruitment and retention. This national strategy should identify practices to be applied across all areas of our union (branches, service groups, regional committees/forums and self organised groups), including:
a)reinforcing the current arrangements in place at regional level on all recruitment strategies with regional committees being responsibility for the development of the regional strategy/plan;
b)the production of a recruitment strategy/plan/programme of work outlining their priorities for each year and specific to their own area of work, linking this to the regional action plan and/or the branch assessment;
c)recruitment should be a standing item on all committee/forum meetings;
d)branch recruitment plans, should outline the following:
i)area of recruitment to be prioritised, service area, resources etc.;
ii)location, shift patterns etc.;
iii)timescales and who is involved.
e) how to maximise the use of additional funding to enhance opportunities for branches, specifically relating to recruitment;
f) ensure that the strategy includes producing training materials for activists to help them build the knowledge and skills needed in developing, writing and utilising “Action Plans”.
g) ensure that we put effective joint working with other unions willing to organise resistance to the government’s austerity programme at the heart of our organising agenda.”